Little Girl and her Bunny

I don't always paint large.  In fact, I rarely paint large.  But sometimes I just want to. This baby is 20" square on stretched canvas.  What I love to do most, is to just plunge in an make a background without any thought to what I'll put in it.  The first stage is collage....  For this I used maps, tissue paper, vintage music sheets, printed pages, printed pages for this piece. 

This step used to freak my out.  But now I know that it is going to get buried so no worries if it doesn't quite go.    Next I add a layer of paint.  Some is a paint wash so the print still shows and some places are more opaque blobs of paint  I'm going for pinks and turquoises and a bit of lime.   I'm liking it by now.

Next stage is to add more paint, some texture in the way of stamps and dots.  I use glitter waste,  bubble wrap in different sizes ( Love DOTS!) and some packing material that had a cool grid inside suitable for stamping.   It was bedtime, but I though I saw a little person and her pal showing up.  

The next day I painted the girl and her bunny.  Once I did this I felt the background was too busy, so I made spaces of "rest" in the way of more solid paint places.  It also seemed to need the black to break up all the light pastels.  I like that you can still see musical notes in her forehead and print in her dress.  

Yes, my painting is "different".  Since I've been taking an e-class by Mindy Lacefield, I've been having fun with this looser style which is very playful to do and to look at.  I reckon it belongs in a kids room.  

Today I made an 7"square print and put it in a frame and it is going up in this kid's room.  She makes me happy cuz she is sweet and likes bunnies.