Joy

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I’ve been working on this piece for several days – it started as one thing and, as so often happens, morphed into another.

I am determined to continue in my practise of using colours that are not common to my palette – it’s good for me to stretch my wings…  This one started off with red and orange, which should be fine as they are side by side on the colour wheel –  but when the green came along that simply didn’t work so I morphed the orange into yellow in an attempt to lift the image.

Zing!!

I have developed a decided love/hate relationship with it!

I love my little birdie, I hate the composition!  It’s messy and crowded and the bird is in the wrong place …………  I really need to develop a plan of action before I start drawing and painting and gluing random bits down ……. so much to learn!! 🙂

And it’s an awful photo – there is so much sparkle and texture that it seems to be impossible for the camera to get its act together.  That shadow in the lower left corner is I believe my head.  The floor of the conservatory is the best place to take photos – the sun was shining and it was close to midday……… Sigh!

I’m sounding decidedly grumpy to my own ears –  but I’m not really – maybe the combination of red, yellow and green doesn’t agree with me – though it is decidedly summery 🙂

I shall get it scanned and see what I think about it then – maybe it might make a nice card….. or it may just end up in the art archives folder

Bird2

Click on the image to get a bigger view, click again for detailed viewing.

Mixed media collage on  A4 300gsm art paper.

Acrylic paint, papers, stamps, paint pen, gel pens, charcoal, pitt pens, gold metallic pen and Inca Gold paint.  Heart punch by Sullivans and butterfly punch by Martha Stewart.

The original layer is two shades of red and some white acrylic paint.  When dry I stamped with three different stamps and applied gesso through a template randomly.  A third coat of thinned white paint was applied and wiped away while still wet to grunge it up a bit.

The bird was drawn freehand on lunch-wrap paper [deli paper to some of you], painted and then fussy cut and glued down to the substrate using gel medium.  I stuck her down too far to the left.

The tree branches were also made originally on deli paper and attached to the substrate.

The flowers and leaves were all made from  200gsm paper which was painted and then dry embossed and punched out in two sizes using heart punches. When they were assembled and attached to the substrate I went in with pens and pencils and paints and gussied them up some.

When everything was in place I used charcoal and pitt pens to define edges and bring it all together.

What do you think?

When you look at it do you feel joy?  Or do you, like me, sigh and think  – oh, that could have been so nice!  🙂

Onwards ans upwards!!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!  🙂

22 thoughts on “Joy”

    • Ha! I just finished reading your post my dear – wonderful news! 🙂
      Thank you for that comment – do you know, this morning I got up and looked at it and for the first time actually enjoyed it! Obviously a bit of ‘time out’ was needed 🙂

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  5. Wow…creativity and joy all over today! I love the greens (my own bias) and especially like the dry embossed texture. I didn’t know you could enlarge and then enlarge again. That is a nifty trick. It allowed me to see all the detail. What patience you have, creating all those layers, then bringing them all together.

    As for photographing shiny objects, that is quite a challenge. I’ve been wanting to make a mini photo booth for my indoor shots, but I never get around to it.

    I don’t know where you’ve found the time to create art and an entertainment room and then write about it. Well done, well done!

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  6. To me, it looks like you’ve perfectly (perhaps unconsciously) channeled ‘Christmas In Australia’ as I might think of it. The red and green are decided festive but with a lot of sunshine too. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a ‘one-trick pony’ when it comes to colour….I’m such an Aqua girl. I’m amazed at all the detail I can see when I biggie-fy twice….WOW, that must take hours. I like all the layers. You always pick really awesome quotes too. This one fits perfectly across your birdies back, do you know that before pen it in?

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    • Oh dear heavens – the Australian cricket colours are green and yellow – I will be drummed out of town!

      I like that you ‘biggie-fy twice’ I think that should be the proper technical term for the action – 🙂 It’s amazing what you can see when you do that huh? [Every darn little mistake]

      The quotes tend to form in my mind when I’m working if I haven’t already chosen an actual quote before hand. It’s like most things I do – hit or miss 🙂

      My process with the words is to write them on a scrap of paper, refine them as best I can then eye ball where I want to write them. I kind of know where the middle of the sentence is and where the middle of the space is and work from there. If the quote is long and involved I will write it out on deli paper and adhere it to the painting later – I did that with ‘I think I’m the One’ https://paulinekingblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/im-the-one-mixed-media-canvas/

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      • Oh, wonderful tips. Ya ya, find the middle and go from there, thanks for sharing.
        Also, dah, I really must correct myself, as you are not in Australia (surprise !) and I know that (Boomdee knocks on wooden head). It’s like when someone thinks that everyone in Canada lives in Vancouver or Toronto…ha. So sorry. Well, the message I meant to convey was’ festive mixed with sunshine’….gads, so articulate I am. 😀
        BTW, only you will see things you meant to do differently, the rest of us are joyously oblivious and allowed to live in our artistic naiveté 😀

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        • Oh, are you not in Vancouver OR Toronto?? 🙂 [Just made myself laugh again]

          I didn’t realise you were thinking I was in Oz, I thought you were making reference to their national colours and the heat of summer – I thought you were very clever! Now I realise you are just as addle headed as me!

          Thank you for that last comment – I must remember that! I must remember that! I mus…..

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  7. I really like it:-) I have felt that way about my “creative endeavors” I have done before, and others like them, but somehow I just don’t see it the way they do…so often I just put it away, out of site and return to it a month later and sometimes I see it in a different light..and sometimes NOT-lol

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    • Yes, I’ve had that happen as well – but this one – Well, I’m just not sure that will happen this time….. Right now I’m wondering if I put a coat of melted beeswax over it some magic may occur…..

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