Yikes, it’s snowing again in the Netherlands! How strange is that for nearly mid-April. Snowed a few days ago, then a few days of sun followed by another bout of snow. Apart from Covid lockdown and all, it’s another excuse to stay in! A chance to catch up on my blogging as well. One painting I like to share is an abstract floral painting I made the other day which I found very appropriate for this snowy April afternoon. Outlines of snowy white flowers on a vivid background of red and pink!
Ghost Prints
The painting starts out with practicing some Gelli Printing which, as you can see I’m rather rusty at as it’s been quite some time. With the main print (center) used for a previous painting Rosy Easter Monday, I used the excess paint for ghost prints on black paper as well as another white paper. Let’s see what we can develop from these!
Working on the Background
Don’t you just love how the colors pop out on the black paper? I grabbed that one and firstly went about adding more to this ghost print. Sticking to the same colours of the red and pinks, I merely applied the paints in random areas with my fingers. Another thing I incorporated was some stencilling with some of Ranger’s Oxide Ink and the same stencil I had used with the Gelli Printing. Interesting to see the reverse effect that! Then I further stamped on some bubble wrap imprints with the lighter pink.
White Flowers
Not wanting to lose the beautiful patterns created so far, I decided to just draw outlines of the flowers without filling them in. The flowers were initially sketched in with some white chalk pencil to make sure the composition was fine, followed by tracing over it with some Molotow acrylic markers. However, I felt that they could stand out little more. For the smaller flowers I painted over with some white Sennelier 3D Liner, giving some texture. The large flower was traced over with some white glitter glue, another means to add some texture to the painting. Finally, I glued a silver sequin in the center of this flower. And now!!
I suppose I could have added more to the flowers but didn’t want to overdo it and outshine the interesting patterns from the printing and stencilling. Best to leave it as is! You can really see the snowy effect especially with the light-pink bubble wrap imprints. Moreover, I love how the colors show up on the black paper. This gelli printing method further enhances how the colors blend in so beautifully. I’d most definitely love to practice more with gelli printing, especially on black paper!
My Kawaii Quarter 