I confess. I love to dawdle with my iPad in the mornings before getting up to start the day. Sometimes I play a few games, sometimes I check in with several blogs I follow, and sometimes it’s Pinterest, Ravelry, or Houzz. Once in a while I wander over to YouTube.
Another thing I love is poured acrylic abstract paintings. Such as Lana Gomez, or Drew Beeson. I haven’t poured any paintings, yet. Someday I will.
I have been trying to be more free and spontaneous in my art making, especially with art journals. Mixed media, or surface design, are several descriptions of using all different types of media on one art piece. So, I was quite intrigued when I ended up on YouTube one morning watching Debbie Arnold’s video tutorials on poured acrylic skin. They look kind of like marbled paper with brilliant color – except, of course they are not paper, they are plastic. That’s why acrylic paint does not wash out of clothes. It is plastic.
While not a poured painting, per se, I immediately thought poured acrylic skins would be a great addition to my art journal. I tucked the idea away in my mind and finally got on with my day. But later, when I passed by the studio (looks like an average basement to most people) I thought, “What if I tried making poured acrylic skin?”
“What if…” is a great question for anyone, but it is really great for artists. What if I used Ultramarine Blue instead of Cerulean Blue? What would happen if I pushed the piece just a bit more by adding some contrast color? To me, “What if” questions are a license to experiment. When it comes up in my mind I listen to it as suggested wisdom. And sometimes I even go down that path. Like this day. I poured my first acrylic skin.
This one got a bit runny.
The marbling effect is more evident in this close up.
I pasted the acrylic skin into my newest handmade book as evidence of listening to my inner wisdom and my bravery in trying something new.
Notice a similarity in colors between the poured acrylic skin, the book, and the painting below? Yup. It was on purpose. The book is to document the next series of paintings I’m working on. The paintings won’t all be the same color scheme, but they were out and available, so…What if?!
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