Fabric Collage painting with pastels and acrylics.

I have been experimenting with pastels lately and love mixing them with gesso and acrylic paint. There are so many beautiful colors in pastels that I can't always find with paints so mixing them with paint or gesso has been a great experiment for me. Golden makes a great product, Acrylic Ground for Pastels which creates a great, gritty surface to apply the pastels and when you apply it with a pallete knife it creates texture and depth in your paintings. I love this stuff!

I really like painting over the fabric. I found, though that I had to do quite a bit of sanding to distress and imbed the fabric deeper in the work. Finding an old eyelet blouse of mine, I promptly ripped up to use in this piece, which you can see on the figure.

I filmed this whole process and will be teaching a class. Details coming soon. Thanks for visiting!

Here is the start of this painting. I used matte medium to collage papers and fabrics (vintage hankies and linens).

I apply soft pastels in different areas of the painting to block in colors.

I paint with both acrylic titanium white and gesso and mix the pastels to create tones.

I then concentrate on the face using acrylics and alcohol inks.

I have some reference of birds on a branch to create the linear image next to the figure.

I collage over some areas to pull the piece together.

The final painting.

Here is a close up of the side...lots of texture to look at.

Here is a close up of the figure.

A jack-in-the-box girl

Here is a painting I worked on while taking a class with Mindy Murphy Lacefield. I really love working with collage. Yes.......more rabbits! I love working abstractly but then I have to have some realistic form in the work. I finally figured out that my goal is not to make a realistic painting but on the other hand not abstract either. I seem to go back in forth with my process of allowing myself to  paint wildly without any thought of realism, but then I reel myself in with reference around me to create form that makes sense. I have a huge library of images I can refer to when that stage of the painting is called for. It's a wild unexpected ride!

January has been a very busy month!

I have completed 3 paintings this month which I am going to show you in stages. The fabric collage painting has been filmed and will be part of an upcoming class. Will let you know details soon.
I have an new online class on thetroddenpath.ning.com and I will be teaching live at Random Arts in Saluda, NC in August. So excited!!
O.k. so here are the paintings and a few notes about them.

So this is the first painting. I started with some earthtones mixed with some metallic paint to give a subtle glow.

I continue adding layers of color using some warmer tones. I also added some stencils for texture. I  wanted this
girl to really glow so I used some metallic paint mixed with titanium white and yellow ochre for skin tones.

I really made alot of changes with this painting. I decided that her legs had to go and concentrated on creating subtle patterns
at the bottom of her dress which created a border of abstraction. The rabbits were imbedded deeper into the painting
and the dark abstract marks 1/3 down from the painting gives the impression of a landscape.

Here is a close-up of my girl. Metallics are now definitely a part of my skintone pallete. My goal was to create a very pale
glowing girl with a very dark earthtone background. The girl turned out the way I imagined but the background
changed drastically. The background I imagined wasn't working so I had to let it sit for a few days and wait till the
solution was revealed.

Painting animals is new in my work. Was never really interested in painting them before but now
I find they need to be in my paintings. It might be a result of my new studio that looks out to a huge
back yard. So far I have seen birds, rabbits, squirrels and the biggest surprise of all deer.

 

My new online class has started-Fabric Book Art

http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/group/fabric-art-book

Fabric Art Book- my new online class

http://vimeo.com/56073888

This is my new online class starting next week . Check out all the info on my classes at

http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/profile/KateThompson

I really love making books and I wanted to share my process and two really cool binding techniques. The first is a coptic which is pretty common, but the second one is a looping technique that makes a beautiful book.

My painting approach is not a direct formulated approach. I start out with something in mind but somewhere during the process it changes and I allow the change to happen. I share that process of how I go through stages of a thought out approach and then move into spontaneity. I seem to bounce back and forth with the two stages until the art is finished. My videos are full of techniques but what I really like to get across is the process in the moment and jumping on those wonderful surprises that happens during the creative process.

I paint on fabric, wood, and paper. I also show you how to imbed paper into the fabric and having the option of painting on both surfaces.

I love interacting with my students and hope to see you in my new class.

Evolution of a painting

This is a painting I have been working on. Thinking of teaching my process here. I have taped and documented this piece from sketch to finish. I started by sketching two figures. I knew I wanted to incorporate birds but wasn't sure how they would show up. They weren't in the original sketch. In fact I left out alot from the original sketch as I painted. The sketch is a starting point and usually evolves into something much different. But I think sketching is very important. It helps me become more familiar with my images I am creating.
After the sketch, I started splashing paint and creating marks by using brushes, stencils, my fingers,speedball pens. I either paint or draw marks with the speedball pen.The acrylic washes are quite light and look like transparent watercolors.
I next go in with more opaque paint and white and blocking out the figures. I paint the features and work on details of the faces. I then go back in with more color and wild color placement and finally I calm the painting down till I am done.
It is process that absorbs me for hours and I can't wait to start another.
Thanks for visiting!

Watercolor and acrylic washes portrait painting class is now open

http://thetroddenpath.ning.com/group/watercolor-and-acrylic-washes-portrait-painting