New painting with paint "skins"

8" x 10" acrylic painting on Masonite

I wrote about Micah Mullen recently, an artist who uses paint skins in his work with marvelous effect. Naturally, I had to try my hand at manufacturing my own paint skins instead of relying on chance encounters on my palette. These came out extra thick, so I had to embed them in acrylic gel like mosaic tiles. There is obviously a technique involved in making sure the paint skins are the right thickness. I made these in an old cat food bowl, but I'm going to try a new palette I picked up the other day at Michael's which has several flat, rectangular wells. I've already made one which is hanging up on my bulletin board (I found out the hard way that you have to be careful about where you store them since they seem to stick to certain materials.) Anyway, here's my first painting with "manufactured" paint skins.

Painting abstract landscapes with dried paints

"Beidler Forest #5" by Micah Mullen

I found an interesting artist today, Micah Mullen, and spent quite a bit of time on his website admiring his abstracted landscapes. I like his textured patterns and colors which somehow resolve into a surrealist-type landscape. He also has an art lessons section on his site in which he shows some of his techniques with acrylic paints. I especially liked the one about using dried acrylic glazes (or paint skins) for texture in his paintings. I've tried using paint skins myself in some of my paintings, but only leftover paints that had dried on my tray and resulted in some nice combinations I couldn't throw out. I can't see any harm in purposefully mixing up some paint skins for use in painting, especially if there's a possibility it could result in beautiful paintings like Micah produces.

"What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger"--Nietzsche

Searching for Sanity in a Brave New World, digital art

It certainly is hard to stick to my guns and use this blog only for artistic ideas when the world seems to be descending into chaos. Of course, the continuing meltdown in the U.S. financial system leaves a lot of uncertainty about whether the little bit of money I have in the bank will be there once the crooks get done with this. The idea of one day having to sleep under a bridge doesn't leave a lot of energy for creative pursuits, but I'm going to try anyway (and keep repeating the title of this blog over and over!) This digital art piece kind of sums up my feelings about the current state of affairs. I spent some time yesterday trying to do something with paint skins (leftover residue of acrylic paints on my palette). The piece isn't quite there, but if I can get over my depression about this nightmare our country is in, I'll drag myself into my art room and try to finish it off.