PYH&S 2018-Class 1

So, this is my first painting for 2018!

It is also inspired by the first class in Paint Your Heart and Soul 2018, taught by Nikol Wikman. Her painting was acrylics on canvas, with a sponged background technique, and depicted snow capped mountains and fir trees at sunset. See the sidebar for the link to the classes!

Mine is acrylics on mixed media paper, prepped with white gesso, in a journal. I didn't have the colors that she suggested, so I used what I had, and I wish I had used a canvas instead of paper. I think it would have been easier and looked better, but anyway, I thought it was done except for fine tuning in the photo above. We used a kitchen sponge for the background/first layer, then brushes and palette knives for the rest.

Photo using Ott desk light and overhead fluorescent light

Photo using fluorescent light only

The next day I started fine tuning and wound up going over the whole thing again. Still not happy with it, but like it better, I think.

I used Nikol's techniques, but adapted the landscape to fit where I live in Tennessee on the river. We live on top of the limestone bluffs with the caves in them. We also have rocks and trees on the river banks, and lots of ceder trees on top of the bluffs and bushes below them.

When I was very young, in the fifties, there was a rock crusher located in front of these bluffs and they mined the rock out of the bluffs. They drove dump trucks all back in the caves and hauled out rock to be crushed, loaded on barges and hauled away.

My dad worked there for a while, and it was within walking distance of our house, so  he came home for lunch every day, and I would run across the yard to meet him, delighted to see him, and he always met me grinning.

There was a country store across the road from our house, run by our neighbors, the Churchwells, who were more like family to us. Daddy's co-workers would go there, get bologna sandwiches, or whatever, and sit on the front porch of the store to eat. They would pick at me and tease me when I came running to meet daddy.

Good memories! I didn't do it justice, and I'm not really happy with the painting, but I learned stuff, so I'm happy about that. It was a good class, Nikol! :)

The two pictures above were made using an overhead fluorescent light with and without an Ott desk lamp. I think I have them captioned right. I think I prefer the one with the deeper colors on the right, but that may be because I'm looking through brown cataracts, and I don't have the best lighting for painting. That doesn't stop me from trying though! :)

Also shared on Creative Every Day,  my FB page, and the PYH&S page.