Squares, squares, and more squares...

I've just finished painting a large canvas with squares! Sounds silly, but it is for the wall of the children's sunday school hall at my church. They are remodeling the hall and I was asked, by a friend of mine, to paint squares on this canvas. The open house is tomorrow, so it had to be done today! So that is what I spent my day doing. Its simple and abstract, but it will look cute with all of the other decor and colors that have been used. We also made some painting with the children's handprints on two large canvases. Those canvases will also be displayed on the same children's hallway. I have photos of those being created. I will post them later.

I'm pretty much finished with my cafe drawing. I will get a photo of the finished painting as soon as my time and the weather permit!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

~Beth

On the Easel...

Last weekend I put a canvas on the easel and started painting again! It really felt good to be creating! Especially something that was larger than what I have been working on lately. This painting was strictly for fun and to hang in the spare bedroom in my house. Really it's my daughter's bedroom, but she moved away to college and took the furniture from the room, so it has been empty until last weekend. We got a new bed and moved some furniture back into the room, but the walls were empty! And of course, I have to have art on the walls! So I had to paint something to go with the new bedspread. This is what I came up with and the steps that I went through to get it there.

Steps 1 & 2:
1. I painted the canvas black.

2. I sketched the flowers on the canvas and painted red loosely around the flowers.

Step 3:

3. I mixed this golden yellow with modeling paste and applied it onto the background with a palette knife.

Steps 4 & 5:

4. I painted the flowers with red and green, both mixed with modeling paste.

5. I started to add layers on the background and flowers to add dimension and detail.

Finished painting in the guest bedroom....So what do you think? Do you ever create something for the fun of it? Or create something to match the decor?

~Beth

Fun Painting!

I am known for how slowly I work on my art. Colored pencils, pen and ink are both very slow processes for me, but I have much better control over those materials. So I think that is why I am 'drawn' to them. But on the other hand, I really admire loose paintings and loose drawings, for that matter. I 'want' to work more loosely! My daughter tells me that "I 'try' too hard, Want it to be 'too perfect'. " So, as I said earlier, she just moved into an apartment, and needed art for her walls. Well after she took some of my art off my walls, she still needed more! So she showed me some styles and subjects that she liked and I said that I would try to paint something for her. Well

I ran out of time before she moved, so I took my acrylic paints with me when we moved her, but even then I just didn't have enough to time to come up with a painting that 'she' could visualize that I could also visualize. So I gave up on creating paintings for her. So when I returned home, I started moving some of my art supplies into her empty bedroom (specifically my paints). So last weekend, I felt especially creative so I went into her room and painted both of these paintings that day! And they are very large paintings, for me. 24"x36" each! But I enjoyed choosing my own color combinations, subject, and slapping some paint here and there, adding some textural medium and really enjoyed the whole process. I managed to break out of that perfectionist mode for the day. I hope to do some more paintings using this style. So right now these paintings are hanging on my previously empty wall (she took another painting that I had done earlier in the same style) and I am really liking the way they look on that wall. But I have listed them in my Etsy shop, so if someone else loves them as much as I do, then I will part with them. If they don't get purchased, I have a feeling that they may disappear when my daughter comes home to visit her empty bedroom! Guess I need to go buy a bed!

Close up of One of the "Flowers in the Vases"
Pair of 2 Large canvases.
Beth S. Macre © 2008