Modelling Compound is your friend
Lots going on – time in the Hills, the beaches and the boys even spent time back in FNQ.
I’ve been head down, bum up working on 4 pieces at a time – fun, but demanding.
I also been experimenting with synthetic textures for the first time – modelling compound and structure pastes. Sometimes mixing with paint and other times applying it first then painting over it.
Textures are what’s got me going at the moment, and there is inspiration everywhere. At Burns Beach there are limestone rocks with so many different weathered faces:
Rockpools and waves also keep me fascinated. Almost got a good dunking filming this sequence:
But back to the artwork… this piece also saw me using Structure paint (by Matisse Derivan) for the first time. More like thick buttery oil than acrylic paint. I could even carve into it sgraffito style to reveal metallic paint colour underneath.
Knitting needles so versatile with structure paste!
Also new to me was having to varnish the piece. Up to now I’ve always used paints with an inbuilt “sheen” of their own. As the acyrlics I’m using now dry with a flat matt finish, a spray of varnish was required to “lift” it. Not easy using aerosols when it drops below zero degrees at night!
Unvarnished on left, varnished on right.
The completed piece. (40cm x 75 cm / 16″ x 30″)
Over the next few days I’ll post all my “catch up” pieces.
Stay warm everyone!
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Amazing work, gotta love all those close ups, thanks for sharing the proccess!
Cindy I don’t even know where to begin. These are extraordinary! Seeing what you’ve been up to and able to accomplish using new mediums is inspiring. When I look at her beautiful haunting face and lines…breathless. Your photos are something else too, what great textures you’ve captured, I could see using these as references when doing abstracts ect.
Thanks Teresa and Brenda. When you’re struggling with something new it’s always good to get other’s opinions.
By all means, use all the references you need!
Gorgeous Cindy, both the artwork and the photos. I love the waves. I’m going thru a slack blogging stage, again……
I loooove this Cindy – did you enjoy doing it and could you see yourself producing a line of similar paintings? It certainly looks like fun!!!
Tazar I have been thinking of you and assorted animals in the balmy Darwin climes…I know what you mean about blogging and being by the computer in general when you’re flat out – I really need to prioritise my hours, they just seem to slip by unsupervised.
Am looking forward to when you’re back on board the Blogging Beast. Finished your Fish pond yet? Mine is still a hole in the ground.
Karen, it was fun – like spreading creamy icing over a canvas instead of a cake. I don’t know about a series of similiar painting – I have such a long list of images in my head to get down on canvas/paper, and “The Girls” as my husband calls them seem to be a “now & then” kinda thing with me. When the mood strikes! I do like spirals though, I could do them all day (and used to in my former giftware business).
Beautiful stuff. I love textures of all kinds and loved seeing the closeups of your experiments. The final painting is wonderful!! Love that red and the curve of the woman. The photos of the sea were a bit scary – glad you didn’t get dunked and we get to enjoy the outcome.
Thanks Rhonda, you never know which way experiments are going to go!
Beautiful piece! I love the textures and color, it’s very vibrant and striking!