A friend in town puts together a small art show a few times a year that features local artists and musicians. The door fee is a canned food donation or money that goes to the Food Bank of Larimer County. I’ve been an artist at this show two times, here is my set-up from the last show, in 2019. I tend to haul almost everything I’ve ever made with me; since my art isn’t constrained to one type, I bring fiber art, painting and ceramics.
Commission request by Project Self-Sufficiency.
I was asked to paint three paintings for board members who retire or move on to different paths and leave the organization. They were very pleased with the paintings.
I took a unique approach to a landscape painting and used one to cut out the shape of a tree, and then painted a mountain theme and sunset in the background, representing the beautiful Colorado sky.
-A-
This painting was a new request for me. A family member passed away recently and was cremated. I mixed his ashes with most of the paint and came up with this for his mother. When asked what kind of painting she wanted, she replied “Modern art.” To me, this means a billion different things, but my mind tends to gravitate towards more abstract concepts when I first hear those words. I didn’t really have a plan at first; in fact, I started one painting and it wasn’t striking me in the right way for what I was trying to accomplish. This turned out more to my liking. Painting with ashes was interesting. I had to strain it through a small screen to get it finer than it was initially (i.e. I had to strain out the bits of bone). I left some texture on the canvas using molding past in my paint mixture. I used Golden Open Acrylics.
Mixing. Here you can see the bone.
Painting abstract compositions is refreshing. I feel like even if there is a direction you’d like to go, the painting takes you along on its own journey. I represented the sun (or, son), along with a loose representations of a mountain and clouds, upside down rain, all incorporated in red, the favorite color of the recipient.
-ALN
This is a digital version of an acrylic painting. Golden Open Acrylics are my go-to when canvas painting. This original was donated to a fundraising auction. Prints of digital version available. I love the way Illustrator translated my brush strokes, it makes for its very own version, leaving the original painting truly a one-of-a-kind.
Novotny Artistry 