More Daily Art

I’m sticking to my schedule and I found the article that prompted this venture into mixed media.  The technique is called Wabi-sabi. 

According to the article it refers to the qualities of imperfection, aging, cycles of nature and cycles of life.  It values the same things I am drawn to: rust, patina, decay, old stone walls with moss growing on it or weeds growing through it.

I am drawn to it, I love to look at it, I love to photograph it; however, I don’t paint it.  That’s not entirely true, an old boat, an old stone wall or an old building will show up in my paintings.  But the patina and decay just for it’s own sake… not so far. 

Day 5 comes close….

And Day 4 is actually based on an old statue so it might count.  For “The Fiddler #3” I used a piece that I was about to throw away.  I had been trying out transfers using Sheer Heaven paper and the first one didn’t transfer well.  I decided to try an ink outline, then covered it completely with white Tempra paint and let it dry.  Once dry I washed off the Tempra paint.  The black outline stayed and because of the black outline you can see enough to know it’s a fiddler.

Day 5 I pulled out another piece from my stack of starts, added a bit more color and some metal  tags that said “outside was still.”  The words don’t necessarily go with the image but it was late and I was tired. 

Days 6, 7 and 8 were done on canvas.  The first day I covered all three canvases with paper towel that had been used to soak up or wipe up paint.  I added more color once they were dry and then went to work on the first one.  The heart is a stone I found years ago; it had been sitting on one of my shelves and it seemed to want to go on this piece.  No sign of the paper towel except the texture it created.

Day 7, you can see a bit of the napkin under the blue, the inside of a lightbulb package made what I first thought was a snow fence.  But it needed more so I added the chocolate rocks from my collection.  I’m not seeing much variety in design yet.

Day 8, the napkin color wasn’t hidden, I did enhance the sun and I love the colors in the foreground – rust and water, two of my favorites.