More Textured Painting Fun!

Abstracted Flower
20"x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
Beth S. Macre  © 2013

Painting with acrylic and modeling paste to create texture is so fun to play with!  I was asked to create a painting with these colors, so I had fun coming up with this design and then painting it.  Love the color combinations so much that I may need to use these colors for a painting for my own home.

The customer loved her painting! I appreciate all of my customers who continue to help me be the work at home artist that I love!

Beth  ♥

You know that feeling...

...where everything seems so far out of reach? Or that the things that you have to get done are so large and looming that you feel overwhelmed? Well that is how this yellow rubber duck looks to me and that is the way I have been feeling the last few days. I'm sure the feeling will pass as soon as these large tasks are taken care of, but since they are not taken care of yet, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I would love nothing more to retreat to my studio and paint, draw, dream....relax, but responsibilities must be taken care of.
This little yellow rubber duck was in the painting of my niece's dog, Georgia. It was my niece's Christmas gift from me. I really loved this little duck and plan to include him in more paintings in the future. But for now, I'm off to take care of some of those responsibilities.

Tomorrow evening I will take time for me!
~Beth

Experimenting with Texture, Paint, and Collage

"Paris Eiffel Tower"
Beth S. Macre © 2008

Acrylic Paint on canvas

As an art teacher, I am constantly looking for new projects for my 3rd and 4th year students. Since these students have been with me for 3 and 4 years, they need more and more challenging projects each year. Some of my students really love a challenge and I really enjoy seeing what they come up with. The latest challenge that we all took on together, was to create a map relief textured painting. They could choose a map of any place, pick out the interesting lines and shapes to create an abstract or semi-abstract design. The only other requirements were that they should use a gel molding paste to create textured relief parts. I told them they could add pieces of fabric, wire, paper, or other items if they wished to create a collage effect. I also showed them a few ways to add texture to the molding paste to create different effects. Some of which I included in my "Eiffel Tower Map of Paris" piece shown here.

When I applied the molding paste, I laid a piece of wire mesh on top of the wet paste and pressed it on, using a pallette knife, then removed the wire mesh, leaving the texture. You can see a close up of the textures in the 2nd and 3rd photos here. The textures show up after they are painted with layers of paint of a variety of colors. To see it larger, click on the image.

For my painting I used a map of Paris, from my trip last summer. I also collaged a cut out photo that I took of the Eiffel Tower and printed in grayscale, then painted around the edges and some on top of the paper.

This was one of those projects that I really had fun with and plan to do more using the molding gel. I really love the effects that you can create with the textures. One of my goals for 2009 is to do more of this type of painting.

Tomorrow I will be doing some studio cleaning and thinking about the rest of those goals for 2009.

Hope you have a happy and safe New Year!

~Beth~