Thursday, June 23, 2022

Busy Morning, mixed media, colorful flowers, insects, and a frog


"Busy Morning"



    What can I say? I certainly got carried away with this little piece! 
    Honestly, I wasn't happy with it at first. It started as a palette knife painting. Nothing seemed to be working out.  I added more knife work and even used paper clay to build up the flowers.  (Paper clay is an air-dry clay that has paper fibers in it.  It dries stronger and is better suited for mixed media projects than regular air-drying clay.) But I still was not liking it. 
     Carol Jones (https://www.facebook.com/CarolsTreasuresFromTheSea), a close friend of mine, sent this resin frog as a gift with my order of seahorses and starfish. It made me smile each time I looked at it.  I moved it all around to see if it would look good and where I might add it.  It cracked me up! That got things moving.  I added some charms and then purchased some molds to make insects and flowers out of paper clay.  Thought I would use resin at first, but the paper clay worked so well I just kept making more.  
    The advantage of paper-clay is that I can paint it any color I want.  Resin stays as it was created, so you have to get the colors right when you make the mold.
    Painting the molded insects and flowers was time-consuming but enjoyable.  Each piece gave me a new idea of what else I wanted to add. I had to make myself stop because it was too much fun to keep adding more! 
    This breaks so many rules on so many levels!  So I went back and added shadows to the bottom and the left side of the painting (to tone it down some) and also to keep the viewer's eye in the painting.  I also used a solid color scheme of complementary colors throughout the project to harmonize the painting. 
    To top it all off, I made a shadow box frame for it and sealed it behind glass.  This added to the whole notion of a child capturing a frog in a jar!  So far everyone that sees it starts laughing.  That makes it all worth so much more!

ENJOY!

  • Original art
  • Mixed media
  • 8 x 10 inches
  • Gold shadow box frame (see below)
  • SOLD









 

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