Refining Acrylic Paintings

Following a 'friends' art day' I have been refining acrylic paintings straight from my walls.

The piece that got the bulk of the refinement was this one which has been re-named Big Dream, Big City. Do you see a cityscape in it too? I always loved the colors in the original, but felt it was too flat. It now has depth and is much more exciting.

After:


Before:


Here is City Night before and after. Not as much refinement on this one, but I think it is a little spiced up from the original. I also added some foil gold to the yellow rectangle, something I always thought it needed. Along with that I streaked some gold lines into it and some small gold dots in the yellow spatters. The top photo of City Night is the 'before'. The three lower images of it depict its colors in the sunlight, on my wall, and a more detailed view of it. (Click on images to see slightly larger.)





The lighter version was photographed in sunlight. The darker version is how it appears on my wall.

This post really began on April 12th with Voulez-vous. Here is the completed painting from my April 12th post.



I'm not sure that it's complete yet. My original intention had been to cover up the lettering and have it as a peek-a-boo element of the background, but instead I enhanced the lettering making it darker and sharper. I may add some jazzed writing in a light color under the navy lettering to make it a more calligraphic piece.

All of the 'afters' have received many coats of gloss varnish. This makes photographing them more difficult...lots of sheen.

A future post will take a painting from start to finish and includes the refinements I made last week.





by Jan Hurst

A Monkey for A Monkey

The first monkey in the title of this post is an acrylic painting I did for my almost two year old grandson's bedroom, which is decorated in a monkey-jungle theme. The sweet grandson is the second one. His mommy called him monkey since before he was born because he kicked so much.

I began this painting on a used canvas, one on which I had already made deep colored brush marks. I thought that would give me a cool background to work with, but it was really an obstacle to have to work around and try to mute colors and shapes that were in the wrong places. Here are three photos of the progress of the painting. The happy little monkey was a hit with Jace, who kissed it several times when I gave Monkey Monk to him.

New Work Finis!

Though I tried to add lettering, this piece just didn't want any! Here is one way I tested the lettering on it: I lettered on tissue paper and taped it to the piece where I wanted it to go. A bit of imagination was still called for, but the end result is that I thought it would muddle the design. It told me, "No!"

To see the final iteration of the piece, visit my website's paintings/mixed media page, where you can also see other paintings in the same color family. Except for my signature and a final varnish coat, I'm calling it finished.

New Work in Progress

Here's the latest mixed media piece I'm working on. It's acrylics with collage and oil pastels, but I think I need to add some lettering. The raised gesso may prevent a good base for that. Still thinking about it.

Here's a slightly closer view.

In the Midst of Winter

Started a couple of pieces today. Wasn't feeling very creative, so browsed some saved favorites which jump-started this one. Lots of small and large white lettering in the background for texture.



This one is acrylics on watercolor paper with gesso and inks (McCaffrey's Ivory and Moon Palace Sumi.)

I've signed up for an oil pastel workshop tomorrow. Hopefully it will make me feel creative before I have to return to work from this end of year vacation.

Graphite and Acrylics on Paper

Did this piece tonight. I was planning to do a background, but kept going. May crop and keep or add more to it.