Kinda like this...

I was working on a forest scene last week - actually it was a painting I had started a year ago and liked the start - with soft greens and lights on a 4' x 5' canvas.  It was a combination of acrylics and collage of tissue paper.  I decided to try to finish it up for the CenterFest show in Durham this week-end.  I worked on it for several days and it was ok, but I found it boring.  I shared it with my mom and even she agreed that it wasn't very interesting…  here's where we were at that point:

 OK, it was "nice" but blah…  so I decided I'd just start over - I gessoed over the entire canvas and decided to paint a face over it… I got a nice under layer of color on once the gesso dried, and then thought that maybe I should remove some of the thicker areas of tissue paper before painting the face.  But when I started to scrape away the tissue, I got a lovely surprise - a very interesting mixture of colors and the more I worked on it, the more I liked it.  Ended up with a composition that works too.  I love it!  It has an Asian feel to me…

Transmigration - 4' x 5' Mixed Media 

Acrylics and collage on canvas

Have a couple more canvases started to try this approach - working hard to get them ready for CenterFest.  Then October is the month I need to work on some paintings for patient people waiting for commissions.  Its going to take awhile to get caught up with those and galleries wanting new work.  Its a nice problem to have - I'm not complaining!