One of our Life Book lessons this month was called “Expressing the True You” with Mitsi B.  It was a chance to pour out emotion and, as Mitsi said, “be a bit slapdash and just play and experiment.” I decided to use one of my Salvation Army finds rather than watercolor paper this time.   I wanted to keep the vibrant background but be able to paint over it, so I put a thin coat of gesso down and worked on top of that.  I bought this painted wood panel for $1.99 folks.  (Apologies to the original artist.)

After the gesso dried, I covered it with images and words pretty randomly.

Then I sprayed some ink in various places to cover the white and added some words.

The most fun part for me was adding vibrant paint colors to create a fun and bold background.  I also dripped alcohol inks because, well, why not?

OK so now the hard part.  I started with an abstract person and filled in as I felt compelled to.  Just as I do sometimes (hello Gemini), she has two sides to her personality.  Whether joy-filled or pensive, remembering happy events or something sad from her past, she is still wholly present in her life, bold, and daring.

The canvas felt like it needed something to balance the girl, so I decided on an owl, which to me seems to be sort of a visionary creature, full of mystery and protection.  I like mixing up the eyes, as you can see, to keep it whimsical.

Then I needed to figure out how to connect the two figures.  I don’t consider myself very good at drawing hands, but there you have it.

Next issue: too much darkness.  I decided to lighten up the owl.  I added some light modeling paste to the paint and really layered it on to make it evoke feathers.

I couldn’t do the abstract thing with the girl either.  She just had to have hair!

Here’s how it turned out.

I really enjoyed the creative process here, figuring out what to add and where, how to make it better and gel together.  I poured a lot of feeling and thought into creating it.  BUT… I don’t really want to keep this one.  I thought I would ask you guys (without meaning to flatter myself in any way) if this piece speaks to you in some profound way and if you would like it as a gift from me.

I think everyone should be able to have art in their home that they love and identify with.  If this painting does that for you, please let me know and I would be happy to send it to you.

Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine and rest.  Can you believe Monday is already JULY!? Me neither.

You can view more “Behind the Art” posts here.