Dancing Lilies Updated

Dancing Lilies was looking a little bare because I had focused on painting the floral pattern mostly in the centre, which was leaving a bit too much white space.  I am a fan of white space but it felt a bit overpowering!  So, I painted in 6 new lilies, adding a second swirling layer of the flowers around the central doily pattern.  Now they really feel like they are dancing!

Painting day complete!

Oldies Made New!

Lately, I've been looking over some paintings I did a few years ago.  Something was missing in them.....and I've been feeling the call to add some more paint.  So, I spent a good part of the day happily painting, adding more colour and contrast to them.  When I originally created these pieces, I wanted to emphasize their quiet quality and beauty of the flowers I used in each, and I felt I had achieved that.  Now, looking at them, what I wanted was to give them a bit more life and vibrancy while still keeping that soft, quiet overall feel.

Here's what they day went like!

choosing colour palette

Paints Ready!

Before adding new paint.

All ready to go!

Added lilacs, mauves, golden yellow and green...

Time to brighten up!

Fabric Painting and Stamping with Ink

I found a long white piece of cotton fabric and thought it would make a great canvas for painting.  The kids could explore painting on a different surface and experiment with the different texture of paint and ink.  They each got a rectangular piece of the fabric I cut up and some nice acrylic paints.  Because we would later be using animal stamps for the printing, the backgrounds they came up with were all nature scenes  like trees, a barn, a colourful ocean....  The animal stamping was done with India ink and animal stamps I made.  The pieces they made all turned out so uniquely even though we were sharing all the same materials and stamps.  Its the wonderful thing about creating...there are so many ways to express oneself!  Look at the amazing fabric pieces they made!

"Stained Glass" on rice paper

Last week the kids made beautiful pieces that look like stained glass when they are held up to a window.  Using a lot of imagination, oil pastels, food colouring and japanese rice paper, they created trees and landscapes that are so rich and vivid in colour!