Abstract Beach Scenes- Using Leftover Canvas

During the Winter Break, I found some Christmas canvas leftover from a project. My kids and I had made several Christmas themed sayings and trees last year, but they didn’t make it through the storage without incident. I decided not to hang them this year. I looked at these four square canvas and thought about using some gesso on them. Since we had used scrapbook paper on the Christmas crafts, I decided that I needed to add some more texture to them. Thus, it was time to experiment…

Here, you will see 3 square canvases. (Number 4 was a throw out. Awful color. Awful composition. It just didn’t work and ended up with papers sitting on it.)

The simple beach of 3 stripes was just experimenting with texture and color. A peer in my art class had used something similar as a background, but I wanted it to stand out.

The beach with orange fish is based on my love of scrapbook materials. I used water-look scrapbook paper, sandy-look pages, and the fish. The water and sand got painted over, but I let the fish stand out.

The third painting is based off something I saw on pinterest. I loved the ocean color and wanted to work on the composition.

Now, the fourth painting I pictured here (the rectangular one) is an abstraction of a picture I took in St. Petersburg. I liked the composition of boats, but the light did make for a very interesting water. I am hoping to add some sea glass to this picture as the sails.

My overall take is that underpainting in warmer coolers has significantly improved my abstractions. It makes them more interesting and cohesive.

With the Kids: Painting Complementary Colors

Most of the time my kids get to work on paper, but occasionally, they get to do a special project on canvas. (Read: VERY BIG deal for them)

On paper, if they totally disregard whatever it is that we are doing, I'm okay with that. But on canvas, I try to keep them a little more on task. A bunch of canvas that end up brownish-gray is not too fun.

One of the ways I try to keep them on task is to give them a limited color palette. In this case, we were working with blues and blues complement, orange. They had a choice to paint water and boats or water and orange fish. Both of my kids chose to paint boats (I guess they take after me). We did this project with a friend who painted fish, but I forgot to take a picture of his painting.

The other technique that the kids were starting to learn here was how to gradually change the color of the blue paint using white. You can see in my daughter's painting (5 yrs old) that the water lightened as it went down the canvas.

Back to the Beach

This week, I took a break from painting people and fabrics to go back to my love of landscapes of the water.

I used the technique of blocking in color with lights, mediums, and darks first. The darks (the sky & blue houses) are colored with a wash of crimson, green, and ultramarine blue. The mediums with just crimson and green. The lights are bright orange.

The bright orange is what is responsible for this really lovely sky. My peers came up to me as I was painting and told me to just "Stop". They loved the moody sky.

I also removed the stilts that the houses were sitting on and some people from the background. My teacher and I thought the stilts would complicate the picture and pull emphasis in where we didn't want it.

I also began, at home, a picture I want to put up on my wall. It is based on two pictures I found. One has a bike that looks like one I own, only it had flowers in the basic. Another had a bike that I didn't like but the water was in the background. Both are similar to a pillow I own, so I thought I'd make my own version.

As you can see, I have the darks of the sea and grass laid in. I also have the brights of the basket and tires. My next step will be working on sand and then the grassy-to-be-fenced area.

My husband saw this and didn't understand that this was just the beginning. He said that the bike should be a little brighter. :-)