Contrary Angel Painting-"HOPE"

Okay, almost two years ago one of the classes in the 21 Secrets classes with Connie Hozvicka suggested, as a prompt, to paint larger than I was accustomed to painting. I had had the image of a red haired angel in my head for a long time, so I decided this would be a good time to try her. Connie is about painting freely and intuitively, which I love. So I cut off a length of canvas, clamped it to a big piece of cardboard, set it on my easel, and got started.

It's been a while, but I think the size is something like 21"x 42", give or take a couple of inches. I wanted it to be like a headboard for our king sized bed, so I didn't stretch it.

I have so many pictures  of her since December 2012 that I'm only sharing a few of them, but she went through MANY transformations before we arrived at a conclusion. I think this is the first one. I covered the canvas in thick white gesso, took the brush handle, and wrote large inspirational words and cookie cutter stencils/stamps on the canvas for added texture. I sketched her off from my imagination and started laying on layers of paint and marks intuitively. I know, not looking too good...

Another version with more paint layering; not liking the wings!

A layer of pink half circles over the background, including the halo, and some shaping going on. I tried umber on the wings, hated it! Some texturing and color on the dress, collar, and hair...

I tried black wings and putting the halo back once. Didn't work! I would get so frustrated that I started calling her "Contrary Angel" and would go for long periods of time without working on her, but she was always standing there glaring at me so that I couldn't discard her, and I would give it one more try.

Looking worse after I tried a sponge technique with titan buff acrylic on the black wings. Yuck!

At some point it came to me to add still more layers of paint to the background in grays and indigo blue. I also added some drips and dribbles and completely did away with the crown and most of the wings, because I could never get the wing feathers to look right. It's a wonder the paint didn't start sliding off in the floor at this point. I lost track of how many layers are actually on it.

When the new paint layers dried, the image of the bird and tulip emerged and the idea for the heart shaped wings presented itself. She stayed like this for a while, and I spent lots of time with her, trying to figure out how to finish her.

Spring of this year I took a course from Jeanne Oliver (Studying With the Masters) in which one of the Masters we studied was Botticelli. I didn't do anything else to the background, because I like the rainy look of it, but I added the star with a cookie cutter, filled it in with gold leafing pen, added a vintage green/gold earring, and painted her a pearl head piece.

I also gave her dress some polka dots with a found stamp and a hand cut copper heart on her lace collar with a metal finding that says "Hope". A few more layers of paint and texture on Hope, the bird, and the flower, plus some real string in the birds mouth and some printed off, cut out text, and we called her done. We're happy with her! And she's happy where she is...

Hanging over our bed, and the walls are not this pink. They are actually a soft coral. I attached her to the wall with copper tacks, which are not showing up, and I will eventually add a border of some kind, but this is how she is for now.

It's been a long journey for the both of us, and there were many times I wanted to rip her up and throw her away, but I was determined not to give up, and I'm so glad I didn't. We spent countless hours together, both working and in contemplation. I know I'm not a great painter, and she's not perfect, but neither am I, but we've learned a lot and grown a lot along the way, and we're both happy to be where we are, together.

And I love my "child" keeping watch over me while I sleep!

It's been an adventure!