Today I'm sharing something different... a pair of 12x18" Mixed Media Canvases that I painted to give as a gift to my step-daughter and her boyfriend, anticipating the arrival of our grandson next month (or maybe even within the next week)! There's a whole lot of excitement in our house and theirs as we look forward to his arrival! Since Allison loves sunflowers I wanted to give her something special to represent their family, which she can display in the baby's room or wherever she likes in their home.
I started by sketching a rough outline of the sunflowers I wanted to paint. Next I created some texture on the canvas, collaging torn book print & applying texture paste through stencils by Dyan Really & Dina Wakley. Once that was dry, I used paints by Dina Wakley, blending together shades of blue, purple & red to create the background. It took several layers of paint to get a mix and shades I was happy with.
The sunflower petals came together easier, I started with lighter colors on the front petals and added in more orange and red the further back I went. I love mixing paints and seeing the blends you get when you pick up several colors on your brush at once! After adding some rough outlines in night (Dina's deep navy paint) and a few white highlights, I started blending colors for the flower's center. Since I was working with purples again, I tweaked the background a bit more...
I decided to spice things up a bit adding some metallic elements to the centers and a few other spots in the background. I used lids from paint to create the metallic circles in various sizes. Once everything was dry and sat for a while (and after I did a bunch of lettering practice on scrap paper) I hand wrote their names & birthdates on the canvas. I'll be adding baby William Paiton's birthdate once he arrives!
Here's my beautiful step-daughter with the paintings at the baby shower. I'm so glad she likes them!
And here's the excited couple together, along with a peek at the growing baby bump!
Like I said, we are pretty excited about the new arrival to our family! Art is always a nice way to celebrate special occasions like this, don't you think?
Inky hugs,
Tara
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