Sunday, November 16, 2014

Out of My Comfort Zone!





Before getting into the content of this blog post, I wanted to say that I have decided to keep this blog going, for now.  I will be posting on my blog through my website, but I hate to lose track of everyone who follows me here. So, enjoy my latest journey in the creative life!

November 8-9 I drove to Fredericksburg, Virginia for a workshop taught by fellow Virginia Equine Artist, Robyn Ryan.  This workshop was not a part of the VEAA, but rather a workshop help at Backdoor Gallery in Fredericksburg, focusing on acrylic painting with mixed media and layering.  WAY out of my comfort zone and anything I had done before, artisitcally speaking.  Robyn is a fantastic teacher, with lots of energy, and well organized so you always knew what was happening.  We played with color, shape, line, and all sorts of mixed media in with the acrylic paints.  

The idea is that you work on a different aspect of  your painting, separating them with gel medium.  Once you seal it with gel, it is there, but before that, you can sand, scrape, use rubbing alcohol, and anything else you can think of to work on your painting.  The layers give your work a depth, and way of seeing the layers that go before, plus, is a blast to do!  I don't know that I totally understood it all while we were there, but it gave me some ideas to play with.

I had wanted to do something totally different to get "out of the rut" I was in, as well as spice up my oil paintings.  I came home and started playing with my pastels and the gel.  More on that later.  

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