While touring some galleries on Sanibel Island in Florida I was deeply impressed by a semi-abstract painting by Brian Height of Canada. The subject was a heron. Height is known for his beautiful forest abstracts. Just earlier that day Chip, my husband, had taken a picture of Ana in her fur-trimmed parka as she was playfully running after a heron at the edge of the water. The wind was so cold but the experience was so fun!
I began this semi-abstract painting with a desire to do an abstract. I love mixing complementary colors wet-in-wet. I often will spend whole painting sessions just mixing colors.
Initially this painting was more fun than a challenge. Part of the challenge was in developing the composition once I had the background complete. At an art show in Anchorage, Alaska a lady bought a print because as she said, "...it's fun, messy, it looks like a child with artistic freedom painted it." I thought, YES, I made my point.
For the background I set the paper on the floor and dropped masking fluid somewhat randomly. Then I spattered, gold gessoed, salted, waxed, scraped and tilted the paint on the paper. After all that dried I turned the paper on its sides, up-side-down and "found" a right side up.
Eventually I saw a lady wearing a beautiful parka doing something. That something was untangling Christmas lights oblivious to everything else around her. Using my daughter as inspiration a carefully added a little girl in a matching parka waiting impatiently to put up the star. The next wonderful challenge was when to quit. As always, hopefully, this is my favorite painting so far..
