Spilling It Is Great for the Soul !

So the days have been looking like this outside the window of my studio:

Magnificent Fall days in the mid 60's. Perfect weather to be outside.

And I did do a little of that. But while these perfect Fall days are happening, I have also been absorbing and being inspired by the great on-line Spill It Class that Carmen Torbus is teaching.

If you remember awhile back, I said I won the tuition to participate in this class and I am so very grateful for that. I have learned a lot from Carmen and her great videos. I learned a lot from her painting techniques and I so enjoyed how her style helped me loosen up with paint. I learned too that I adore Golden Fluid acrylics even more than I did before the class after learning how Carmen uses them. I learned that I like to paint with my fingers but that I do prefer brushes and paper towels.

Most of all I learned that I can create beautiful things on canvas. This may sound like a small thing but it was big for me. In the past, I was very intimidated by canvas. They cost a lot more than one sheet of paper, even than a sheet of watercolor and I just felt like I wasn't a good enough artist to work on canvas for some dumb reason. But now, I am in love with the texture and the depth you can achieve on canvas. That was a great thing to come away from the class with as is the wonderful support and inspiration you get from all the other participants and from Carmen herself. I highly recommend this class !

So let me share a little of what I did.

Here's one piece I did, starting with a 9X12" canvas gessoed black.

I dripped and smeared and spilled and stamped and rubbed the surface with many different colors of Golden Fluid acrylics. I ended up with kind of a mess and wasn't sure at all where I was going with it.

Carmen also had us color photocopy images to use for collaging on our canvases. She suggested using your own sketches or journal pages. I made copies of my paint puddle people that I had made in my journal way back in June.

("Fruition" - canvas, collage and acrylic paint)

Add a nicely rubbed in coat of Pthalo Blue, a touch of white and Pthalo Green on top of the whole canvas, my paint puddle angel, some more collage pieces (orange pieces and tree) from my own stash of painted papers, a bit of gold metallic paint, some ink lines done with the dip brush and some black ink around the edges, and here you have the completed canvas above, "Fruition".

Another piece I did was on this rectangular canvas I had bought at the Christmas Tree Shop. Three ugly painted canvases with nice thick gallery edges for $4.00. I covered the ugly with a couple of coats of white gesso and then went to town the Carmen way. I spilled, and smeared, finger painted and stamped and made this gorgeous blue background. You can see some of the details in the texture more when you click to enlarge it but it is hard to capture it in a photo and it it too big for my scanner.

Again, I used a colored copy of a page in my journal. This page was called "She dreams of dark beauty. " I used an image transfer technique that Carmen shared for this piece. The hardest part was waiting for the gel medium to dry over night.

My transfer worked well except for the details of the girl's face. I ended up cutting out the girl from a second copy and gluing it on top of the transfer with gel medium in order to have more details to the figure.

Then I added painted collage papers and some stenciled sequin waste dots. I also added black paint with a sponge and some yellow oxide transparent paint in some drips here and there. Finally I took out the India ink and the dip pen. I tried to write the word "Nocturne" on the left had top of the canvas but hated how it turned out. Luckily I was able to wipe most of it off when it was still wet. I added some other scribbles here and there to finish the piece.

(Nocturne - canvas collage and acrylic paint)

(click to enlarge.)

I am liking this ! Two pieces of my own art, on canvas, that I would happily hang on my walls in my house. That is a cool feeling ! In fact, "Fruition" is already hanging up in front of my desk in the studio. I am really happy with both of them, and with all the great things I have learned about myself and the creative process. Big thanks to Carmen again for her great class and for letting me be a part of it !

Happy Monday, beautiful Ones ! Hope you have some chances to get messy this week !