Playing with Paint

While visiting family I bought a book called How to Paint Flowers in Acrylic, by Tim Fisher.  The loose quality of these flowers really intrigued me!

T.Fisher_Acrylic_Flowers

Then, my niece, Nolie, and I found some TINY canvasses (3 x 3 and 2 x 2) and we just HAD to play!  We got out my mom’s acrylic paints and started doing some of the exercises in the book.

Click any image for a larger viewPaint and play, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

We had great fun mixing paints and making a mess.

Paint and play, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

I decided to loosely imitate one of the images in the book.  (Note that I’d never tried to paint anything realistic before this!)

Paint and play, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Many of the flowers in the book were rather loose.  I thought that matched my skill level.  I wanted to just add colorful shapes, like I do with fabric.

And this is what I ended up with.

Paint and play, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

As you can see, my painting was a little inexact.  (Is there such a word?)  A fine black line added definition to my vague edges.

I’m pretty happy with it.  But, most of my enjoyment came from the process of exploration and learning.  Great fun!

BTW, if you want to order the book, just click on the image and it will take you to Amazon.com.

Ellen Lindner
P.S.  I keep saying that I’m going to learn how to paint with acrylics when I retire.  But, maybe I should accelerate my timeline?
P.P.S.  Isn’t Nolie a pretty name?  She’s named after her great-grandmother, my grandmother.

2 Comments

  1. Maeve Binder says:

    I definitely think you should step up the painting. I really like this simple painting you did. Paintings are much faster than quilts, for sure. Have you tried watercolors? So loose and so fluid . . . and gorgeous!

  2. ellen says:

    Hi Maeve,

    It was definitely fun!

    But, watercolors scare me. Although I love the way they look. Maybe one of these days!