Recently I spent a full week at the 'Summer Art Experience' run by the Artists Society of Canberra. I did a class in Mixed Media with tutor Marijke Greenway whose work I admired when she taught last year, and also from her website. This is at www.marijkegreenway.com
These are 4 paintings that I was reasonably happy with.
The first is a small sample of painting (or pouring paint) on to unsized canvas on the floor. My large one needs to be redone as with a leg problem I had trouble bending down to the floor and my creativity deserted me.
This next acrylic painting was on stretched canvas. Marijke had many photos of her trip to the Kimberleys in northwest Australia and became the inspiration for a painting.
These bell like flowers are from the Eucalyptus Caesia - the canvas was prepared with tissue paper and gesso. I think a different subject would have showed the texture better from this technique.
This Grevillea flower was done with oil pastels on a piece of board painted black. It was interesting to try but not a medium I really like with its oily feel.
We also tried painting with inks but I didn't have much variety in colour, so used some cheap food dyes. They sort of worked but run very easily when adding layers so I abandoned them.
I need to experiment more with different media and supports this year. In February our Wednesday painting group will start again. I'll probably return to pastels for a while but also acrylics as I'm doing Tuesday afternoon classes with Michael Winters. The course is called 'Matisse:from Matisse's room to your room.' The classes are from the Centre for Continuing Education at ANU at www.anu.edu.au/cce
