Spray Paint: El Fin

I think I'm done with spray paint...FOR NOW (Cue dramatic music!). Well, almost done. I figured I'd experiment with this one canvas as a final test- mixing acrylics and spray paint, but really, its a way to finish off/cover up another failed experiment. But first the pics!



The first one, "Angry Flower Girl," you've all seen before. But but but! Wait! There's more!
I re-worked it, just a little bit. The black lines around the form I sharpened via a stencil, and I'm happier with it now. I had free-handed it in the first go-round, and I do like the crispness the stencil gives. The stencil doesn't quite cover all of the blurry bits of the black from before, but I'm cool with that too, like a weird shadow or something. Two feet wide, four feet tall, I declare this one done.

The next two are both on canvas. They are 18 x 24 inches, one laid vertically, the other horizontally. In the spirit of their gi-normous Radish predecessor, I've named them "Pineapple" and "Tomato." I kind of did them at the same time, I'd paint the background of one, and while it was drying, paint the background of the other. I'm really happy with how the Tomato turned out. You can't tell as much in the photo, because my camera simply sucks, but the colors are blended where they need to be, sharp where they should be and its just all around crisp. About as juicy a swirly tomato as I could ever paint. Yay!

I was really happy with how the Pineapple was going too...Until I botched it pulling the stencil off for the last time. For some reason, the stencil pulled up some of the background colors. This truly makes no sense, since it didn't do that to the tomato at all! But, unfortunately it did. Then, in a moment of sheer genius (sarcasm!) I decided to spray some paint into a baggie, not to huff, but to capture it in its liquid form, use an old throw-away brush (the paint will harden bristles horribly) and try to touch it up. Okay, okay, worked alright on the black bits, the light blue bits...The orange bits? Not so much. It dried darker than the surrounding orange. I quit while I was a little ahead for the part where it got weird in the yellow part. In a perfect world, I would have just accepted how it was from the beginning, and tried to pull it off as some kind of chipped stucco look, or something. In a perfect world, my stencil wouldn't have screwed it all up!

Then, to do one better, I tried to re-do that painting on a whole other canvas. Annnnddd theeennn I screwed that one up too. I tried to "dirty" it up a bit with some extraneous flickers of black spray paint, which just dulled all of the colors and looked messy. No go. So, in the end, I accepted the imperfections of the first Pineapple (if everyone turns their noses up at it, it will just go in my kitchen, so there) and sprayed all over 2.0 to fit it for a simple, acrylic-meets-spray paint makeover.

Then I'm done with the spray paint. It's loose and fun and all, and I think I'm about played out with the loose and fun style. Every once and a while, you have to go back to the 'harder' stuff, for me, the still lifes and intricate paintings that make me sit and concentrate, instead of flit around and fly free. I'm grounding myself, if anything it will reaffirm my skills. Then, later, when I get bored of sitting still, I'll go back to some kind of sillies again. That's how I roll.

Also, art networking is freaking fun! I've nearly got 200 'fans' or 'likes' or whatever on Facebook and I thank every one of them! My goal is to pretty much get my stuff out there, and, hopefully, on someone else's walls, and the only way to do that is to be present for everyone to see.

I'm thinking my next turn will have some politics in it. Given my background in current events and political cartoons, there are some subjects I can't ignore. Sorry if you prefer to keep politics out of art, or don't care for my opinion, but hey, its my way to express what I feel. You're welcome to your opinion and form of expression as well (as long as it doesn't involve tearing up my art--that's just mean).

I've got the Hip Sips--Art, Jazz, & Wine Festival coming up June 12, in Modoc, Indiana. It's an evening event, so come see! Great atmosphere, I promise. ;)

And, I think I'm going to take a stab at submitting my art for juried review at Oranje Indy. Or just Oranje. But since alot of my friends aren't in Indianapolis, I added the Indy as a reference. Looks like a nifty event, fun and flit, like some of my work recently, so we'll see. Not trying to jinx myself, it is a juried event, but it never hurts to try right?

Then I'll get a better camera and my pictures won't suck! Yay!

Ok bye.