A Secret Place

Today I couldn't get into finishing a painting or starting anything serious, so I decided to play and work on a mixed media piece.

I came across some rubber stamps of snowflakes that I used with my daughter when she was a little girl and thought I could use them in this painting.

Using cadmium yellow, aureolin and Antwerp blue I put a flat wash of colour over the paper.

While the background paint was drying I mixed a small pool of burnt sienna and raw sienna, then another of lemon yellow and cobalt blue and a larger one of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna.

I put the first mix into some areas by pouring it and rolling it around on the paper.

Using the larger pool of dark green I poured it over some areas of the paper, rolled it around and with a sponge I created some leaf like shapes being careful to leave some areas of the background colour showing through.

Then with the sponge and the last pool of medium green I put areas on around the edges of the painting and in a few areas to create some lighter coloured leaves.

The painting was then set aside to dry.














With a heavy mix of China white and cobalt blue I applied it to some of the snowflake stamps and pressed the image in a couple of areas on top of the darker green paint.

I also splattered some of this paint throughout the painting.

Using pure burnt sienna I put in a few branches through the painting to tie all the leafy areas together.

With gold paint I lightly splattered a little into the bottom of the painting first. Then I put in a few star shapes, small branches and twigs, as well as highlighting some of the larger branches.

Lastly I washed some glitter paint throughout areas of the painting and set it aside to dry.

This original 4-1/2" x 6-1/2" mixed media painting when framed will be available for $85.00.

I would like to thank Mr. Derrick Ryan of Hastings, Ontario on his purchase of Bufflehead Duck (see post on 16 November 2012).