EXPANDING HORIZONS…..

Summer is almost over, and it’s been an amazing one – lots of family time & not much studio time.  I’m taking some deliberate steps to stretch my studio muscles in preparation for when everyone goes back to school & I can get serious in my studio again.

Colour mixing – this is a great exercise!  My first attempt to get the juices flowing resulted in some very interesting colours that I will be sure to use in the weeks to come:

Colour Mixing Session #1

 Another exercise I have decided to do is to paint on paper – with texture. This is a brand new experience for me, and part of my goal is to cut costs while ‘playing’ with some new techniques. I saw some beautiful artwork on paper this Summer, and I was intrigued. What if I was to paint on paper? This would enable me to take so many more pieces to New York! Eventually they would have to be framed, but for the purpose of my Show in New York, I could simply put a nice matte around them for display purposes.

Here is a piece I started today – on Arches 400lb watercolour paper (primed with 2 coats of gesso last week)……..

Acrylic texture medium on paper

I am contemplating a photo that was taken on our family vacation at Whistler last week…..I am calling it “Whistler Waterfall”…..as I work on this piece. Anything could happen as I have not painted on paper before, I am working on stretching my colour palette, and I have not used photo references before.

Whistler Waterfall

I will keep you posted  Thanks for your interest in my journey —– I hope to inspire others as I plod along.