Hi!
Linda Edkins Wyatt with you today.
In my art journaling, and in my paintings, I love to add a word or two to express how I am feeling at that moment in time. Sometimes it is just one word, sometimes a phrase. Sometimes I don't realize how much emotion I have been holding in until I stop and see that there are words all over the page. One of my favorite things to do is combine a portrait with words.
This 12" x 12" painting started with a face stencil done in lavender acrylic on a plain white canvas.
I added skin tone and bold strokes of color for the hair. It didn't feel quite right, so I set it aside...for almost a year!
A couple of months ago I decided to kick it up a notch. I wanted to have a face that was multicultural, so I had the idea of dividing it up into sections and using a different skin tone for each part. It looked really awkward, so I put it away until last weekend.
As I added words from Gwen Lafleur's Not Afraid to Try stencil to the canvas, the painting took on a new life. I carefully penciled in lines so that the words would be in a straight line, and wrapped them around the canvas.
I decided to play with the words, so I did some flipping and mirroring with both archival ink and embossing powder. I also added some handwritten words (you are enough) and a few bits of paper torn from my old thesaurus. I added a leaf stencil below the right ear to suggest an earring. Using only the middle of the Crown Chakra stencil, I added OM in different colors around the canvas. The OM is a meditative sound that calms and empowers a person and helps take away fear. I also used the small Rembrandt's words in the hair and on the neck to suggest a tattoo.
Along the way, I took about 100 process shots of the painting, and made them into a video...hope you enjoy watching it!
Stencils Used:
What could you paint if you were not afraid to try?
Wow - you really brought it with this piece! To think that this started as an unsatisfactory piece that you set aside - twice! - for many months. This time you were truly inspired. All the detail is amazing. And the typography really makes it wonderful. Thanks for showing how disappointing pieces can be resurrected - gloriously!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I love seeing the evolution of this piece, I believe it was always meant to be what it has become. The multicultural aspect adds so much interest allowing the framed words to capture the essence of the statement. Wonderful (and love the video)
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