Working on a Background

It has been a quiet Saturday.  Outside, it is bitterly cold with incredibly high winds. I had an appointment and an event on my calendar today but postponed one and decided not to attend the other, as the forecast was for blowing snow and the roads did not look all that great when it was time for me to decide whether or not to go.  So I stayed inside hibernating instead, which gave me a chance to clean off my art table in the kitchen and play with some of my art supplies.

before

after

I met a lovely woman and talented artist by the name of Jeanne Oliver when I was in Mexico in November, she was one of my classmates.  She has her own network featuring various online video classes which you can find here.  You can sign up for free and there are free videos available to watch or, if you are so inclined, you can purchase any of the classes that catch your interest.  I've signed up for a couple of courses already and I've also enjoyed two of the free videos currently available for viewing:  one called Creating Patterns and Textures and one called Mixed Media Vintage Girls.

I spent part of today watching each of these videos and starting my background.  Here's how it looked when I finished the first layer of collage:

After adding paint and texture (which Jeanne teaches in the Creating Patterns video), it looked like this:

Next I added a layer of light buttermilk coloured acrylic paint to blend everything together.

I haven't decided what I'll do next.  One of Jeanne's recommendations is to let your background sit overnight and come back to it the next day with fresh eyes.  I'd like to try painting one of the vintage girls on this background, we'll see how I feel about that idea tomorrow.  In the meantime, I just really enjoyed the process of making the background, even without knowing what it will be used for in the long run.  I'm looking forward to making more of them!  Many thanks for Jeanne for making these videos available for free, what a treat.