"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, July 4, 2014


My new painting, "Visionary", is another experiment in mixed-media.  The painting is 16" x 12" and is done over another discarded painting from the "archives!"

I first tore text areas from a magazine and collaged them over the old painting which was done on 140 lb. cold-pressed Arches watercolor paper. I stamped and painted textures on white tissue paper with white Gesso.  I used rubber shelf paper for the stamping, and the rest of the designs were hand painted.  I then tore shapes from the tissue paper and collaged those on top of the magazine text.  I did this at random - paying no attention to where the various textures were going to be in the final composition.  I used matte acrylic medium as my collage medium.

When this dried, I drew the image on top of the collage with an HB pencil and painted the image in transparent watercolor.  I added a few areas of white to the beard with block-out white to finish.  I did not use colored pencil on this as I did on the first.  I love the way the stamped and collage images show through the watercolor.

4 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Another super strong portrait piece, Barb. I do not know how you do it but then you are an artist extraordinaire. I love this!

Vicki Greene said...

Excellent portrait! This certainly is a "trash to treasure" story.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! I love this that you are doing!

Unknown said...

This is very cool! Wow! I love the look of the collage, but it's really hard to achieve, isn't it? I haven't ventured there yet, myself, but I really love seeing others turn out such amazing, exciting, creative pieces. This is exquisite!