Hibernation

Another intuitive painting!  This one began with not having a clue as to what I was going to end up with.  It was one of those days when you have the urge to paint SOMETHING but can’t figure out what to paint so just go by, as the name suggests, intuition.  Well it turned out to be something out of the ordinary, as usual.  As the winter draws nearer, birds start to migrate and furry animals hibernate.  Bunnies are among them.  And then something got me started…

Funky Background

This time, I used some paper from my A3-size mixed media sketchpad (Royal Talens). White gesso was then combined with some purple liquid watercolour (Dr. Ph Martin’s Hydrus) and brushed onto the paper with a large short-bristled brush.  Once dry, I sprinkled some acrylic ink and rolled them onto the paper with a textured brayer.  Three different colours were used for this:  purple (Velvet Violet by Daler & Rowney), turquoise (Turquoise Blue by Amsterdam) and blue (Cyan Blue by Daler & Rowney).  I just kept adding them until I was happy with the outlook.  Apologies for the bad quality photo but it was taken when the sun was down.

How About Some Bunnies!

I was not sure what to do next.  I didn’t want to add further to the background because I liked the way it looked as it is.  Didn’t want to spoil the interesting patterns I created.  So the only choice was to draw on top of it.    Perhaps some animals would be an idea, I thought.  The background looks like it’s cold and wet but why not liven it up with some bunnies?  And so I painted a pair of bunnies.  Big heads and tiny bodies.  They don’t look very identical in terms of shape and size but I was not to fussed about that.  Adds to the cuteness!  Dylusions paint in Lemon Zest was used, mixed with some Matt Medium by Winsor & Newton to give it some transparency.

Let’s Add Some Colour!

I thought some bright colours in the surroundings might be a good idea, particularly considering the open space on the left side of the painting.  Here, I used Dylusions paints in Bubblegum Pink and Cut Grass again also combined with some Matt Medium for, as stated above, transparency so the background patterns show through.  Now that’s much better!

Making it All Pretty

I added a few bits and bobs on the painting without wanting to sacrifice the pretty background.  Firstly, I had some scrap paper from a previous painting in orange from which I cut out some shapes and glued on with Matt Medium  The same for some Hello Kitty origami paper.  Then I randomly began stamping some purple bubble wrap imprints using Dylusions paint in Crushed Grape.  Similar was done on the bottom area using Fluorescent Green acrylic ink..  I then doodled some squiggly lines, hearts and spirals with blue and fluorescent pink Sennelier 3D acrylic liner.  It was only at the last minute I decided to add some eyes to the bunnies using white Molotow acrylic markers.  This time, they are closing their eyes.  I thought that would be an appropriate look for this chaotic surrounding.  And with the cold and wet background, I then came up with hibernation!

Again, lots of fun making this painting!  One of the things I enjoy about intuitive art is being able to continue aimlessly and suddenly coming up with something interesting.  I also love how the background turned out!  As I didn’t want to lose the beautiful effect, I was happy I was able to retain it whilst painting on top of it even with such vivid colours.  And amazing how I was able to turn this “cold and wet” background to something kawaii!   So the bunnies are hibernating.  Hope they get a good rest and looking forward to seeing them and more in the Spring!