"4 O'Clock on Rock Candy Mountain" textured abstract landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"4 O'Clock on Rock Candy Mountain", 8x8, by Carol Nelson

This is a demo painting I did for some students in my studio.  The cool thing about this painting is the substrate.  It's a burlap canvas panel I found at Hobby Lobby.

I've never seen panels like that before.  Since I'm all about texture, the burlap panel is right up my alley.  To contrast with all that matte texture, I used embossed foil for the "sun."  The shine doesn't show in the photo very well, but looks great in person.

For more information about this painting, click here to go to my website.

"Blue Trees" mixed media collage painting © Carol Nelson Fine Art

Blue Trees, 16x8 inches

At my recent workshop in Phoenix, I showed the class this easy method of making tree canopies with a variety of texture compounds.

For more information, click here to go to my website.

"Luna" mixed media abstract landscape © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"Luna"   11x14 mixed media acrylic

detail

 

This is a demo piece from my recent workshop in Wisconsin in which we applied heavy texture to our Gessobords, let it dry for a couple days, and then poured acrylic paints on the surface. 

Patience is the key here.  You have to sit back and watch while the colors mingle and create new colors and forms.  Slightly tilting the board with the wet paint helps it flow around the texture, but mostly you have leave it alone and let the paint do it's thing.

For more information, click here to go to my website.

"Mineral Rights", mixed media geologic abstract © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"Mineral Rights"

This geologic abstract painting is done with high flow acrylics on a textured canvas.  In pouring on the colors, you don't have total control over what's happening and that is what's fun about painting this way.

For more information, click here to go to my website.

"Blue Grove 2" mixed media tree painting © Carol Nelson Fine Art

"Blue Grove 2"

I included a couple angled shots of this painting because it's hard for the metallic background to show.  The foliage is made from crackle paste.  After painting it mostly shades of phthalo turquoise and paynes gray, I used Golden High Flow burnt sienna, and Com.Art transparent phthalo blue for airbrush to drop color into the cracks of the crackle paste.

I was given the package of High Flow paints at the Golden Art Educators program I recently attended in New Orleans, and the ComArt air brush paint was given to me at Jerry's Artarama when I taught a workshop there last April.  This is the first time I've gotten around to using either product.

The long pointed dispenser tip on the ComArt bottle really lets you pinpoint where you want the color to flow, which is a nice feature. These paints are very thin, with a consistency like ink.

I did this painting as a demo for my Mixed Media Trees workshop I will be teaching next week in Raleigh at Art of the Carolinas.  The workshop is only 6 hours, and I'm worried the class' crackle paste won't crackle soon enough for them to paint on it, so I need to have something to show them how it will look when it's done.

For more information about this 12 x 5 inch painting, click here to go to my website.