To Life!

Oil & Cold Wax "LIFE" 16x16

"Life" was a fun abstract to paint, As with most abstracts, I had no pre-conceived idea as to what this would become. 

Adding color here and there, removing a bit, layering more colors playing over the week until what I wanted to say was finally said... 

"This is Life!"

That Elusive Certain Something

I was talking with a friend about some new landscapes I've been working on that had a bit of a  Nebulous feel; yet for the life of me I couldn't describe them.  I am  trying to paint something... to capture something that I can't seem to put into words. I want it to feel dreamlike, other worldly,   mysterious and compelling.  I want the viewer to look at the paintings and want to linger & wonder. 

These are the first three... I love these paintings & can see they're getting closer to it, but that "certain something" still eludes me.

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And then, this one. 

Nebulous IV

You might have seen the beginning of this painting on my last post. 

It was to be an abstract with collage accents when I picked up paint instead of acrylic medium. With each stroke of color I could see the painting was attaining that nebulous dreamlike feel. 

So far, this one captures that elusive certain something more than the others, but now I am hopeful that I might be able to attain it. 

He says "up", I say "across"

I  had a 4x6 stretched canvas that was a little bit loose, & my normal hot water/shrink it remedy didn't make it tight enough to suit me. So this provided me with the perfect opportunity to play without the guilt  of ruining a good canvas experimenting.  This is done in acrylic with one strip of teal artisan paper.

The work in progress.  At this point, I really like it.  side notes} I protect my kitchen counter & stove top with a black vinyl tablecloth  I picked up at the dollar store,(they were out of white).   My palette is made of paper plates covered with foil, when finished I flip the foil over & have a clean palette.) 

I turned the painting vertically adding just a few more accents & then called this finished. ((OH and to my surprise, the acrylic mediums I used, seems to have tightened up the canvas!))

My husband likes this vertical & while I really like it that way, I lean towards  horizontal. I can see it both ways.  Would you please give me your opinion as to which way looks best? 

A New Direction

Over the past 2, mostly quiet years, I've done less and less  mixed media and more painting.  I think my direction changed when I painted this. It has just one small piece of collage, a paper from an 1866 German Devotional in the upper left section.

Something happened to me when I looked at the finished piece. It sounds juvenile,  but it was one of those rare moments when I felt like I crossed over and became an artist  of fine art.
The reaction on twitter was very positive an enthusiastic. And I when I put it up on etsy, it sold rather quickly. I also was asked to make a larger one for someone off line.  

Because of the positive reaction & the 2 sales, I have often thought of painting more like this in other color palettes, but I don't' want my art to be formulaic. On the other hand, what IF this is supposed to be my ionic style?? Yeah I know I'm just day dreaming! :)
I know where I want to go artistically, but how to get there is the question.!