Abstract Grunge Paintings

Here are a few of my latest paintings. They all feature an abundance of texture and layers and layers of color.

16X20 acrylic on canvas

30X30 acrylic on canvas

30X30 acrylic on canvas

30X40 acrylic on canvas

Antique Dresser Makeover

I snagged this great dresser from an estate sale a few months ago. It was pretty beat up and dusty but the character and details of the piece are amazing. I decided on an avocado green color and could not be happier with how it turned out. It is the perfect pop of color in our entry way and showcases one of my paintings beautifully.

This is the dresser before. It was very orange-y in color, faded from the sun in spots and had mismatched and broken hardware.

Originally I thought I would stain the top and paint the body of the dresser. That turned out to be more work than I was really wanting to put into it at the time and after I decided I wanted it green I thought painting the entire piece was a better option.

I wanted a chippy and rustic look for my final finish so I started with a coat of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in blue. This paint stuck to the original finish without any sanding before hand. It chipped off in a few spots which is just what I wanted it to do. After one coat of milk paint I finished with a couple of coats of Benjamin Moore paint in Avocado Green. I did some light sanding around the edges at this point. The last step was to protect the finish. I wanted an old antique look so I finished with Annie Sloan dark wax, two coats. It turned out perfect! The finish is durable and eye catching.

Art Journal Background

Here is one of my latest art journal backgrounds. I am really loving the color combination. I'm torn between leaving it as it is with maybe just a couple of words or none at all or journaling over it with either pencil or black ink.

Faces

I love faces! They bring so much emotion and feeling to an art page. I have been practicing faces the past couple of weeks, experimenting with techniques and products to find what gives the preferred results. What did I determine? The same theory that I use on all of my paintings, layers, layers and more layers. Using a variety of art tools of course. For these faces I first drew the features roughly with a pencil. Then I applied layers of paint, paint markers, colored pencil, ink and charcoal to build the features of the face.    

I created faces on a variety of papers.

Then I incorporated them into art journal pages.

'embraced'

'better'

'change'

'feel'

Small Mixed Media Paintings

This is a series of smaller mixed media paintings I did for our neighbors. Each one was done to depict their personalities. They are acrylic, paper and ink on canvas.

    

   

   

True Free Spirit

Here are my first art journal pages from the True Free Spirit class taught by Mindy Lacefield of Tim's Sally.  This is a year long session with a new project each month. January's project was to create your 'true free spirit' girl. I made a couple because the color and doodling was just too fun.

Don't Look Back

I love this new mixed media painting. I wanted to capture her as care-free and serene. This painting is 30 x 30" canvas. I used molding paste and papers to create texture. Then the girl is pieced together with found papers such as packing paper, tissue paper and catalog pages. She is embellished with ink, acrylic paint and charcoal.

 

Trail Painting

I recently finished this painting for our house. These are my colors and I love them! The Est. 97 is the year we were married and the trail arrows point to the trail heads just outside the back door. I used a ton of texture along with acrylic paint and ink.