Painting - Poison Control

I spent the morning reading and writing for Sunday's sermon, but it wasn't going well.  I'm really struggling recently to get my thoughts together in decent form for a sermon.  ((other's tell me that the sermons have been fine, it's just my own critical voice getting in the way.))  I was feeling a little disgusted about it so I decided to do something else this afternoon. 

I painted. 

I gathered my supplies together and was ready to begin when I thought, "It's a really great day outside.  Why should I paint in the basement (which is where I usually work)? I'm going outside."

I covered the patio table with a drop cloth and laid everything out: Brushes, Spray Paint, Water, Stencils, Sandpaper, Canvas, Acrylic Paint, ....

Using acrylic paint I laid down a quick cover of blues and reds and allowed them to mix in some areas....  Next I sprayed a layer of red spray paint across the top.  Some of this was quickly blotted away using the table covering.

This leaves areas where the underlying layers can still show throw.  This is a technique I use frequently.

Now, being really clever, I used the milk crate which I'd used to haul everything outside as a stencil.  Spraying with blue and white spray paint I created this cubed effect.

I worked with the acrylic paints again to give random details to the painting.  I repainted some of the cubes, and added reds and oranges to the top. 

I continued this way for awhile, alternating between the spray paints and the acrylic paints, adding details, blending colors, shading, and building up layers of color.

Now I was ready to use my stencils. I've used these stencils in a number of paintings already.  That's the great thing about stencils: you can use and reuse and re-reuse them in different ways.  You can see that I used the poison stencil twice in this painting.  I reversed it the second time so that the canisters and boxes weren't all going in the same direction.

You might also notice my coffee mug in this photo.  It's very important to keep your coffee mug and your rinse water separate.  You don't want to confuse those two.

We're nearing the end here.  I continued building up the colors and layers... but I wasn't happy with how "busy" her face was.  So I fixed it.

Another couple of passes with the spray paint and milk crate stencil and  the painting is just about done.

Here is the final work:

Poison Control - 14" x 11" -mixed media 2010

(a detail)

(as always, click on any of the pictures to see them full sized. thank you.)