"Loose and Raw Painting" with Sue Pelletier

I recently took an online workshop from Sue Pelletier and loved it! The workshop was "Loose and Raw Painting" at a more than reasonable price, and Sue teaches a lot of stuff in it. There is a video about the class on the link.

Below are a few pics in progress and the finished painting, which I love, and someone wanted to buy (a high compliment), but it's not for sale, and I have it hanging over my couch in the living room, right next to my pink Christmas tree.

I didn't have some of the supplies that Sue used, so I improvised with what I did have, my intuition, and patience, with some fearlessness thrown in, and I had so much fun with the process!

I started with an idea page in my sketchbook...

or two...

Wait! I thought of something else!...

A little collage with various textures on a 24" x 30" stretched cotton canvas...

Played with some modeling paste in a syringe and some ink on some light weight denim and added to the collage...

Put it all together and came out with this! It got a little busy on me, and the color isn't as vibrant here as it really is (bad lighting and not great photography), but I love it, and the images all have sentimental meaning for me. In a way, it is a mixed media life portrait of me, my parents, and both sets of grandparents.

The little flour sack dress was made for me by my paternal grandmother, and I still have it. In fact I laid it on the canvas and loosely drew around it, so it's the actual size. I was not a skinny baby! Still not! lol 

The house is the old home place where my maternal grandpa grew up and much of the time I was growing up, he and my grandma lived there. My parents lived just a very short distance away so I, too, have grown up on the same little farm and spent a lot of time at this house as a child. When I married, my husband and I also built a house nearby, so this old house, which is now falling down, has been a part of my life for longer than I can remember.

The teddy bear, not actual size, represents my mama's love for me. She picked cotton to buy it for me for my tenth birthday. It was one of my best friends and slept with me, protecting me from scary things for several years of my childhood. I am 64 years old now and gratefully still have both it and my mama.

My dad liked tulips, and since we lost him suddenly in 2004, I gave the painting tulips. The teardrops represent the million tears I've shed since loosing him. Loosing a parent at any age is a very traumatic thing, especially if you were really close and spent a lot of time together.

The shoe is a saddle oxford, which I had to wear with a shoe brace for fourteen years of my childhood, due to a bout of polio at age two. At age 16 I was given permission by the doctor to wear other kinds of shoes and no brace!

The bunny in the heart represents the little community of Rabbit Hop, where I've lived all but two of my 64 years. I was an only child, but I grew up with great neighbors who were like family, with children to play with, and lots of love. This place is my heart.

The cross represents my faith in God and has my fingerprint in the center.

The dark spots above the dress are my adult fingerprints, and the rest are doodles and scribbles. It is intended to look loose, raw, and gritty.

The writing says, "She wore flour sack dresses made with love." I did too, very proudly! 

There are many layers on this painting under the top layer of paint,  just as my life has many layers underneath the person I am at this moment. This painting is finished, but life will keep adding layers onto me until eternity claims me, and beyond...

I really enjoyed the process of this painting, and already have another small one in progress. I hope you enjoyed my attempt and the story behind the images.

Happy creating! :)