Flower Dream
Some time in July, I felt a tiny creative spark once more. I dusted off my box of paints and poked about the pile of canvases. This round canvas I had left over from my brother’s wedding sign-making. The elements (the color blend of the background and the flowers in general) of the sign were also the inspiration for the Flower Dream, as well as my beautiful flower garden, and the story of Bob Ross.
I had noticed the Bob Ross channel on Twitch streaming his painting show. It made me wonder who was behind the channel and if it was legal for them to stream it nonstop. That led me to the Netflix documentary Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, featuring his son, about how the production company or the individuals who helped Bob Ross with his show allegedly cannibalize his legacy for money years after his passing. To this day, you can see the official accounts on social media with people commenting lovely things on Ross’s talent, gorgeous works, and his delightful personality, oblivious to who they potentially support by doing so. It is so sad.
The sad and dark things aside, we all can do it! We can create our own worlds! As Bob Ross always encouraged us. One brush stroke at a time! Isn’t that a wonderful thought?
I never limit myself to particular materials or techniques. If I could, had the resources, energy, and time, I would be doing crazy things. Insane things! My ambitions for creativity are absolutely limitless. Acrylics are no exception. Each paint and tool has its quirks to figure out. If you check the fear of failure at the door of your creative space, it can be incredibly fun. Just play, dummy! Fuck the fear and fuck the perfectionism, too! It is as if purposefully stabbing yourself in the foot repeatedly and not letting yourself move forward.
None of that! The Flower Dream flowed with an ease as soft clouds on a calm day in the sky. I sometimes note ideas that pop into my mind on a piece of paper lying around on my desk. I had written flowery clouds. As simple as that.
Because it did not require some elaborate sketch or planning, I had complete freedom to play and discover things. Things? Yea. How does the paint move on the canvas? What textures are possible? What brushes create what effects? How quickly do the acrylics dry? How well do they blend and mingle? What do I like about what I can wield out of them? There is a ton to uncover. And since the discovery was a great part of the process, I also chose not to base the flowers on our real world. I pulled them from my imagination instead.
It was heaps of fun to come up with all the different blooms and to work with various paint textures. I especially love how the textures of the clouds turned out. I think they add an extra touch of interest for one's eye.
That is it for this time. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my post! I will be back soon with more!
-M
Song of the day: The Birthday Massacre - Kill The Lights
Hey, that is really cool! It is a different style than I have seen from you I think.
Hope you are doing well M ♥️
Hey! Yea, I certainly need to paint a ton more to truly learn how to speak through acrylics. I am really enjoying the textures and buildability of the layers. I think I will acquire modeling paste to mix with them for even more pronounced reliefs going forward. They lose a lot of volume in the drying process without it.
Painting with acrylics also make me think that I really want to try oils at some point (despite heavy metals, fumes etc.). That seems like a completely different world in terms of getting tiniest details in, color blending. Do you have any experience with them?
Things are pretty well. Especially, since I am succeeding of not making things extra hard for myself. I am learning to let go and accepting perfection at absolutely every aspect of my life is dumbest thing I can do to myself.
Hope you are doing well too?
I haven't observed that (yet?).
I think all cats are in a supurrposition of “good kitty” and “acrylic sommelier” until you perform a meowsurement.
Song of the Grey:
Maybe she likes the scent. She always licks my hands when I put on lotion. Then again I got to remember that not every kitty likes to lick hands in general. She is the first cat in my life who likes to lick hands, faces, lotion, and now acrylic paints.
It was funny how I discovered it. It was when I finished "Fairy Flowers". It was a tiny painting so it was on this tiny easel on my desk, and she sleeps on my desk (because she always needs to be where I am) and sometimes walks all over the desk for pets. She began sniffing the painting and licked away obsessively xD It was cute, but yea, probably not healthy. Since then I am super careful where I keep paint supplies, and paintings as well. Luckily, she does not like my "art table" I got last year before Inktober. She is picky about her surfaces, strange critter! ^^
That is a good one! <3
Wow! @m31 this is definitely a unique painting.
I love art as well, I especially admire the way you play around colors, it's so captivating to the eyes. Nice technique, I like the white background on which the flowers florish beautifully, giving it that unique touch.
Amazing read, thanks for sharing.😊
Thank you @happy080! :)
Oh, now that I think about it, I was not intentional about what colors I chose for each flower. The back ground was the only thing I chose purposefully similar to what we had done for my brother's wedding sign. It reminds me of cotton candy and sunset. Everything else was more or less intuitive, what I liked in the moment.
I am glad it was a nice read as well! Yay!
Nice painting. Keep it up! I like the idea of "One brush stroke at a time". Yeah it takes time but if you love what you're doing, you can make it effectively and efficiently.
Thanks, @daileen23!
For sure! I have caught the painting bug and I have now a bunch more ideas of what I want to work on next. I might have to break it up a little since I also have decided to do a few Inktober drawings this year as well. Then right after I will back to it! :)
I also added a bunch of modeling paste in my cart for more textures in future. So exciting!
Heck yeah! This is what I'm talking about! ^^ Lessssgooo!
I sometimes feel like the fact that acrilics dry as quickly as they do is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I guess the next step of exploration could also be figuring out all the solutions that one can mix the paints with and see how differently they act then.. but that is whole another world of exploration.
This painting evokes etherial-dreamy-summery-childhood vibes and I love it! It's like this abundance of ease, softness and pretty things..
~Josie~
Yay! Time to just dooo iiiiiiittttt! Hehe!
Yup! I mean there are also the goops that slow down the drying. Of course, some of them also come with extra chemicals and extra scary too such as thinners xD
One goop I really want to play with is the structure paste. See what kind of 3d effects could happen with those!
Hugs
That was so absolutely amazing! This post made me remember my days of being a student, as we did some paintings. It's so fun and helpful as we gain more knowledge and skills about painting.
Thank you, @mariajasmin! Aww! Have you tried painting since? I did go to art school as a kid but that feels like such a far, far time in the past. My art is mostly intuitive or self taught though :)