PSSSTTT…the next Arty Party is tentatively planned for Saturday, August 13. Make sure you help your best friend subscribe to get deets! You know you love her. You know she’ll love being there with you!
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How I Decided to Paint a Monster Canvas
A few months ago I was approached by the manager of a local business. She was hoping that I would be able to provide her with some art to go in the greenroom where performers stay when they are doing shows at her venue. The deal was that I could hang them in her greenroom and put for sale signs on them.
Now, I don’t do free stuff for “exposure”–an artist or musician can easily starve that way–but she was already providing some low-cost advertising for me for my music lesson services, so it was a mutually beneficial bartering situation.
There were several walls that needed art, and I had pieces that would fill the space nicely. But there were two walls that were HUGE. Creating pastel paintings big enough to fill spaces that large can be tricky, since the paintings must be framed under glass, and glass is heavy.
Art has done lots of things for me, but one of the most useful is that I have very little fear of making art mistakes or trying something new. A friend gave me some larger canvases she had used once for some crafting, so I pulled out the largest one and stared at it a couple of weeks, and then realized I needed to just begin.
This one is now hanging in the greenroom:
I enjoyed adding gold leaf to this Hill Country sunset over the lake.
Even Bigger!
This satisfied the need for the longer wall in the hall, but the other wall in the dining area was HUGE. This size was just not really going to fill up the space enough, even though it is the biggest piece I had ever painted.
To fill up the area, I would need to purchase a very large (and therefore expensive) canvas. I got some advice from a mentor that one solution would be to consider a triptych format, which would let me purchase three smaller canvases (slightly cheaper) while still getting something that would fill the space nicely.
One day I was in Michael’s (hobby store) for something else and noticed that they were having a sale on canvas BOGO. And sure enough, they had the perfect set of three…a wider one and two thinner ones that were the same height.
I learned so much painting this piece called “Hill Country Gold” — I couldn’t resist adding some gold to it as well.
Here’s a short video I made of the process. At the end you get to see me standing next to it where it will be hanging!
Hill Country Gold Process Video
Other Activities
I’ve been out and about painting, too!
Here’s a little field study done this week out in the heat:
I also wanted to do something abstract, so I applied some ink randomly to some treated paper and then added pastel:
Click to Buy on Daily Paintworks
And that’s it for this week!
Remember to make sure you’ve subscribed to the blog to get the Magic News, and also get your friends to sign up so you can have fun together at the Arty Party!
Meanwhile, I hope you look for the music, listen for the colors, and awaken the wonder and worship in your heart. Godspeed!