It's A Flip!

I worked on a piece this week that another artist had thrown out!

Never wanting precious resources to go to waste, like a 48x20 gallery wrapped canvas,  I pulled it out of my stash to see what I could make of it.  What I loved the most in the original piece was the curved scratches and the movement they created...so I worked right over them with my trusty Stabilo pencil, filling in negative spaces around pencil marks with the blue background colors I chose.  I really enjoyed the process and began randomly laying down lots of papers and pieces of fabric right over the original colors...letting a few of them peak through.

I felt like I had a pretty good start,  though not really sure where I was going with it quite yet.  It came to me while I was on a phone call to my BFF on the planet (who by the way abandoned me and moved to Ecuador with her sweetheart 😐) and I was absent mindedly looking at the painting as we chatted each other up...what would happen if I flipped it around popped into my head?

Voila...

I had the makings of a floral!  And by the looks of the black stems...I'm thinking Orchids.  Just that simple flip during a phone call brought it all into focus for me.

At first, I thought I would paint the orchid blooms to look realistic, juxtaposing all the texture, papers and irregular paint going on all around it.  Though once I started to lay it out and paint I wasn't liking that as much, so I attempted to scrub it off and found another happy discovery...I loved the scrubbed results!  So I outlined again with my Stabilo, sealed those outlines with medium and then added transparent layers of colors using my water soluble oil pastels...an oxymoron if you ask me...water soluble oil pastels...really?  I enjoy the worn effect of the orchid blooms and how they now worked with the rest of the painting.  Mistake to success!

To finish it off I wanted to fill in the blank space right in the middle of the piece...so I used a light handed script in several shades of paint and Stabilo pencil...keeping a quiet design element that was just enough to keep the eye moving around and not getting lost in that space of nothingness in the center.

Also taking suggestions from my art sisters...I lightened up the bottom portion of the painting that was so dark it drew your eye away for the orchids...your eye always goes to the darkest spots.  I was reluctant at first (change and letting go is hard), though it usually works in our favor!

I'm happy and thankful for so many things on this piece...the throw away canvas, the chat with my BFF that turned it around (literally) and my art sisters at F1VEart who gave me the extra eyes to see may way through to the finish.

Now on to the next...