Hope's Art Journey

“Lime Green Palm”  is the last of my 5 paintings done on 6” x 6” gessobord.  And, it was the most fun because of what I learned doing the first 4.  The board lends itself to acrylic paint that is not mixed with extenders or mediums.  I found it better to paint the background thinly with washes and to come forward in the painting with thicker paint.  If you do that, and still don’t have the result you want, you can glaze into the paint.  I still love the contrast of the maroons and oranges in the marsh with the lime green of the new palm.  This won’t happen again in this spot.  The trees have grown and changed their foliage and the marsh is ever changing.  It is a definite “in the moment” painting.  And, I did push it a little with the contrasting bright blue sky.

Along with the painting of this series, I have been researching my photos to find those that will lend themselves to works on paper with mixed media.  I have also researched my books on new techniques and referred to several websites with methods that I have not tried.  It seems that even though I don’t miss the etching process and printing, I do miss the drawing involved.  I want to bring that look to these new works as an addition to my acrylic paintings.  More to come in the next blog post.