Two Book Reflections

I’ve been looking for a way to loosen up my watercolor style. The current effort to do that is by taking a class through La Crosse Parks and Recreation entitled “Dare to Paint Abstracts”. This class meets weekly and we work in acrylics.

I’ve used acrylic paints for woodcarvings, usually thinning them down to make washes that can be layered. Now I am exploring actually painting with acrylics.

One disussion has to do with levels of abstraction – using shapes such as circles, or using free form open shapes. I am exploring how to abstract from natural forms. We have been workng on our yard and garden. There are raised beds for vegetables on the southern and sunny end of the yard. On the shadier northern end, we have ended the lawn with an oval, past which we are plaicing herbs for the kitchen and native perennials. These are to feed and house the pollinators.

I will be working on using a bleeding heart plant as inspiriation for my next effort. There is a mulched ground laywer, a black metal fence and then the greens, red and pink of the plant. Here is a hint.