Day Three- A Rediscovery of Sorts

River Dance

24 x 36"

acrylic on canvas

© Nicki Ault, 2012 
sold

The morning of Day Three was spent talking about the large number of acrylic mediums that are on the market and their possible uses. Our instructor, Alicia Popoff, uses a variety of them in her work to create different textures and effects. I haven't experimented with them at all, so I found it quite interesting and even overwhelming. I had no idea of the possibilities! Golden products alone completely blew my mind- as did the artist friendly nature of the company. After lunch we were encouraged to continue with something that interested us and Alicia generously offered us the opportunity to try some of her acrylic mediums. I, however, was still feeling ever-so-slightly intimidated by my straight forward paints that I decided not to add anything more to the mix! :) 

After coming off Day Two, which was a bit more of a stretch (albeit a baby one) for me, I decided to spend the afternoon revisiting the way I handled my abstract reflections in the past. I hadn't done one for so long that it was a bit of a rediscovery of sorts. In fact, in these first three days I felt like I had been reacquainting myself with my acrylics because I have been painting with oils almost exclusively for the last 10 months. I had brought a canvas with a very bad painting on it (it definitely could have held a prominent place in the MoBA) and covered it with black gesso. I had done some small 8x8" reflections on dark grounds before, but never a large one. All of that black staring back at me was a little bit, well... dark, but I hoped once I began layering the colour it would dance against the black. And as I painted  began to remember- these reflections require many layers of colours and glazes. It's a bit of a push/pull to set the colours down into the water and also to let the "light" sit on the surface. A lot of back and forth. Mmmmm, I had fun!

I did a second painting on Day Three which I will show you next time. For now I am going to make another attempt at falling asleep! I went out with some girlfriends tonight to share some exciting news and I made the unfortunate decision not to order a decaf "London Fog". I hope to share the news with the rest of the world very soon!

Also, note the addition of some dates at the top of the blog. Today I dropped off two paintings for the Mendel Member's Showcase which is opening this Friday evening between 7 and 9 p.m. The show will then run for about three weeks until Oct. 7.