Painting #2: ‘Waste not, want not’ using acrylic skins and collage

Getting back to Painting #2

I started this series of blogs a while ago. In the first blog, I started two different paintings. I continued with both in the second blog. Blogs 3-7 concentrated on painting #1, which I finally completed. I concentrate on painting #2 here, sharing the complete process using acrylic skins and collaging used, dyed, paper towels.

This is where I left off with painting #2 in the second blog.

Painting #1 after step 2 of my acrylic painting technique
Painting #2 after step 2

It’s not pretty at this point, but it gets better, I promise. When I look at this, it reminds me of a garden. So, with that and my ‘waste not, want not’ process in mind, I take the ‘beautiful shade of green’ paper towel from Step 1, which is now dry, and cut out a few dozen leaf shapes in different sizes. I go through my ‘stash’ of similar dried paper towels and find several in different shades of green. I cut out more leaves. Then I take some gloss medium and paste some of the larger ones down on the canvas (#2-3). It already looks better.

waste not want not
#2-3, with leaves pasted down

Using acrylic skins

With my ‘waste not, want not’ process in mind again, I look through my piles of acrylic skins from leftover paint dried on palette papers from previous pieces. I have lots of bright, colorful splotches of dried paint — ideal for making abstract flowers. I don’t worry about making the flowers ‘perfect’ flower shapes. I cut the skins while still on the palette paper. Then I peel them off and paste them down over the leaves. I begin with the larger skins to build up the base (#2-4).

adding acrylic skins
#2-4, adding large acrylic skin flowers

I continue add more flowers and begin to layer smaller ones on top of the larger ones. I also add a few smaller leaves cut from the paper towels. Then add a few dots of different colors to the center of some of the flowers (#2-5).

#2-5
#2-5

It’s beginning to look a lot like a garden of flowers! Another ‘waste not, want not’ idea comes to mind — more leftover dried paint. Not from skins on a palette though. Since I started painting, I’ve been saving the blobs of dried paint that accumulate on the tops of paint tubes and bottles. I find them interesting and many remind me of flower stamens. So I dig out my stash of these paint blobs and paste some of them on the canvas. (In the past, I have also cut these up and mixed them into paint and mediums to add texture to the canvas.) I add a few more dots of paint and more smaller leaves and it’s done! (#2-final).

adding acrylic skins
#2, finished

Not surprisingly, due to the many layers of acrylic skins and dried paint blobs, there is a lot of texture to this piece (#2-detail).

adding adcrylic skins for texture
#2-detail

For Sale in my shop

This painting is now available for purchase in my shop.