A Floral with Attitude

I love youtube for all its vids on painting.... speed painting, lessons, art show reviews. It's so full of information and inspiration. Last weekend I saw a video on drip painting. I would reference it, but for the life of me, i cant find it anymore. But anyway, it inspired me to give drip painting a try. 

Of course the artist made it look soooo easy. And her painting was sooooo good. But I struggled with it. The paint was gloppy, i learned to dilute it more efficiently. It went where i didnt want it to go. I swirled it, moved it, sopped it up. Let it dry outside for a solid 2 days. Didnt like it. Painted a dark background, added some detail. Didnt like it. 

I had to let it sit and think about it for a couple of days. Looked at it a lot. Thought about it. What was missing? I let it settle in my mind. I decided it needed some texture, so i broke out the glossy gel and applied it to the background. 

It looked alive to me then. It looked funky, and somewhat deviant. A deviant floral. Hmm! This floral has an attitude! I finally decided i didnt hate it so much anymore. 

Here is the finished painting and 2 pictures of the process. Experimentation, part and parcel of the freedom that defines art. Hope you like it!

The finished painting:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/98769110/a-floral-with-attitude-original-painting 

 

Paint applied, set out to dry:

 

Background painted in:

The Young Artists

Yesterday i went to my town's school art show. It featured art from every grade - from kindergarten thru high school. What i found most exhilirating was the sheer, unadulterated creativity and imagination of these young artists. There were no standard fruit or floral still lifes. There were no common puffy-cloud landscapes.

No, it was a variety of monsters, pop culture icons, odd-looking people doing weird things, and perfectly personal abstracts. It was great! Refreshing, powerful and interesting all at the same time. These kids have vision, their own unique imaginative scenarios, and they create them. They were not concerned with marketing, or with consumer-driven topics. They see the world their way. They are free! Free to create, unabashedly.

It made me realize that young artists have so much to contribute. Keep doing what you are doing, with all your emotion and heart. You may teach us older artists a thing or two.

Painting Giveaway!

SPRING! The season of renewal ... The warmth of the sun is a gentle touch to the skin.... The flora are in bud.

And you can have this original 6x4 painting for FREE! Go to https://www.facebook.com/artistchristina and simply share it on your own page and you will be entered to win it!

Random drawing is May 1st and your painting will be posted that week. (Sorry, can only mail to within the U.S.).

I hope you have fun with this, and good luck everyone!

Florals for Women

Over the past couple of months, I've become more and more alarmed at the recent trend by some conservative legislators at the state level to chip away at the rights of women. Rights regarding personal choice and privacy, and those rights which were so hard fought and so long to arrive.

Now, just years later, they are introducing new legislation which attempt to coerce and guilt women into behaving in a manner they deem "moral", but which are, in fact, a thinly-veiled disguise to impose a radicalized, right-wing christian agenda. Does this country have freedom of religion, or not? Morals stands separately from religion.

The proposed limits on birth control funding and forced undue medical procedure pre-abortion are both issues that, no matter what your religious belief, attack the basic human rights of women that have already been established by law.

Please help me to support women's causes via the National Organization for Women, to which 100% of profit will go for each sale in the Florals 4 Women's Rights initiative.

 

All Florals to Benefit Women's Rights available at Florals 4 Womens Rights.  Here are a just few of them...

welcome!