canvass

I am not sure where the background came from for this and I am pretty sure I won't be able to repeat it.

I did pause for a while in front of the canvass wondering if I should keep the background as the painting but then I thought I was putting off jumping in the deep end and putting an actual image on the canvass.

So I jumped in.

In all honestly I have no idea which way the painting should hang, not even now.

Now with a bit more confidence from Painting 7 I decided to jump head long into a plan and go back to the using acrylics like water colour.

This is not entirely finished but gives an idea of what I am trying to achieve.

Okay, maybe I wasn't quite ready to give the image in the head to canvass idea the heave ho, even after the disaster of Painting 6.

I decided to do something simple, uncomplicated and hopefully it would work out as I planned.

After discovering about layers in Painting 4, I decided to proceed a little more carefully so the background didn't affect the foreground when I painted it.

Again, we go back to the plan to get an image out of the head onto canvass. This is perhaps the painting so far which makes me cringe.

I like the water effect and the rock effect but as we go higher it makes me run for the back of the sofa. Having said that it was a lesson which made me decide, at least for the moment, not to plan but go with the flow and see what emerges from the canvass.

In a bitter sweet way, this painting is now dead due it sustaining damage while being stored.

Having failed to get an image out of my head onto canvass with Painting 4 I decided to give it another go.

So, we have an example again of an abandonment of the original idea in favour of "the wandering brush".

The sun, top right is the only part which was part of the plan before the brushes found their own way.

Althought this looks like a watercolour it is acrylic paint.

I am particually pleased with how I have defined shape through colour and brush stroke, something which I was nervous about previously.

Sometimes you get the feeling, no matter how you try, whatever you do isnt going to turn out right. This is one of those peices.

Rather than "wander" I decided to see if I could get an image from my head to canvass. I was curious.

Having failed completely on more than one front, the piece did teach me more about layers, particually how to make a layer almost transparent. So not a complete failure.

Since there are no rules to The Wandering Brush this painting found itself and was not planned.

This was actually painted in reverse to how you see it. It was only when I was three quarters of the way through the painting that I suddenly realised it look better the other way round.

The painting is entirely in acyrlic but used in the bottom half of the picture to give a water colour effect.

This was my second painting and the first on a large canvass, which after trying, I prefer to paint on.

This was an experiment with layering a foreground over a background.

Initally I had a plan for the peice but upon starting all that went out the window. However, this was the painting which made me want to paint again as I enjoyed the experience and freedom of standing in front of a blank canvass and just painting.

The photo is edited to remove the background, not done at all well! Hence none of my other photos of my art have the background removed!

I had not painted since school and didn't do at all well at Art. I decided to try painting again but in a free style, so I could experiment with paints and brushes without fear of technicalities or indeed failure. Something which when I was at school we were not allowed to do.

Simply to put paint to canvass was a success and "The Wandering Brush" was born.

The first painting I did was on a small canvass donated to me. This is how it ended up (and yes those are my toes..)