Wine And Flowers

I recently completed a mixed media painting that I’m calling, “Wine and Flowers.”

I discovered during the process of completing this painting that some paintings must “age” just like a bottle of fine red wine.  It was a long process to get to the point that I was satisfied with it.  The size is 16 x 20 inches on canvas.

I thought you might enjoy seeing my process.  I started by covering the canvas with 2 greens using Liquitex Heavy Body Paints.  I then drew a quick sketch with soft vine charcoal and just started adding to the shapes with Golden Fluid Acrylics:

I found that it helped me to buy a few flowers for inspiration even if I wasn’t painting them exactly.  It was fun to add a few drips for what I call the syrupy stage on the left.  Next, I added some collage papers as you can see on the right.  I used my gelli-printed deli papers for my collage and glued them with Liquitex Matte Medium.  I added collage to the flowers, the wine bottle, the flower vase, wine glasses and the bowl for the grapes.

This painting was an experiment to add collage papers in between my layers of paint.  Unlike my last painting that I added all the collage papers at the end.  I then added more paint to soften the collage papers – below, left photo.  Then I got a little crazy and decided to add some white paint because the painting was looking like I didn’t have a good focal point – too many colors!

I call this state the “ugly stage” because it is when I add many layers to find the right balance in my painting – much like a winemaker blends the grapes together to create the ideal wine.

As you can see I first added more paint and then more collage papers to the above photos.  I also tried to consider what direction my light was coming from which I decided from the right – even though this is not an still life, I think it helps to direct the eye.

It was still looking pretty wild so I added a light yellow house paint sample to the background and a purple to the table.  I then scrapped off the paint and scratched into it with the end of my paint brush as you can see below on the left.  This was a totally spontaneous experiment and I loved the result!  I added two colors of Golden fluid translucent paints to warm up the painting as you can see on the right:

It now has an Oaxacan feel to me that I like.  So I added a little more collage to the vase, grapes and wine glass stems.  (Using part of a map that I previously gelli-printed).  In addition, I added details with soft pastels and soft vine charcoal.  I added a few highlights with white charcoal pencil and signed my name.

To finish it, I added several layers of Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish.  It seems to keep the vibrancy of the soft pastels the best.

Now you can see why it took me several weeks to complete this painting.  I think it’s time to celebrate with a glass of wine!

Cheers Friends!!!  🙂