Description
A heavily textured and pastel abstract mixed media art piece with lots of layers and history. The stretched burlap I started with had been painted on by my daughter several years ago. It had evenly placed pastel circles on a white background. She had no interest in it anymore, so with her permission I began to paint over.
I protected some of the paint from her original circles, even though the final abstract painting composition is much different than how she began it! It went through several stages; first a lively, swirly, feminine red and pink with some pops of blue. But the color was too intense, so I began covering parts of it with black – I wanted to provide depth and tone down the intensity of the reds. But the black became to dark and heavy, so in came the smoky grays and textured white.
I began scribbling and mark-making with soft pastels and acrylic markers, and continued to layer the gray and white as the abstract mixed media composition began to come forth. The final touches were metallic gold accents and glossy carbon black splatters.
I love the layers and movement and textures – there are so many little places of interest on this painting because it went through so many versions, and the little peeks of paint from my daughter’s original creation help keep it grounded in innocence.
I loved this slow process of letting the painting be different personalities and versions until it become it’s fully complete, deep, and complex self. It is titled as such, so that with art and with ourselves we don’t become to rigid in our goals, expectations, or status.
