You can do a lot in three hours.  I found that out today when I was on a mission and a tight timeframe.  In between last minute Christmas shopping and picking up the kids from school, I had barely three hours… and two huge blank canvases.  These canvases were bought months ago and hung white and naked (and still shrink wrapped) in their places, waiting patiently for the paint to be applied - and then nothing happened for so long!  Today was the day for action.

I picked out some paints and purchased pretty printed paper from Pepe’s Papierie (say that 5 times fast) and got to work.  I have never worked on such large canvases before - they are almost a metre square (just over a yard) and so I decided to work outside.  I have a tendency to be impatient for paint layers to dry before adding another colour so I thought the sun would come in handy as a giant heat gun.  Unfortunately, I realised too late that it also acted as a giant cooker on my skin and I now have a lovely red, hot and sore patch on the back of my neck and the backs of my arms.

I didn’t take any in-progress photos as I was working so fast and making such a mess along the way but I can show you the finished result, hanging back on my wall in time for the 3pm school pickup.

To be honest, I’m not sure I love them but they look a lot better than they did this morning.  The colours are perfect for that area as the wall behind will soon be a light blue, and of course I wanted to reference the red couch.  I’m still not sure if they need something more (or less?) so I will study them for a few days and see what comes to me.

Above is the left panel, and below is the right.

What do you think?  Any suggestions?

Related Posts

• Tuesday, December 23, 2008 -- canvas reloaded (2)
• Tuesday, June 20, 2006 -- evolution of a canvas (5)
• Friday, November 21, 2008 -- handmade market (2)
• Sunday, February 24, 2008 -- new collages (1)
• Saturday, February 16, 2008 -- birds and fish (6)

tags: art, canvas, collage, mixed media, painting