Monday, June 13, 2011

Blue Butterflies - Mixed Media Canvas

This is my submission for week 1 of The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin at Twinkle, Twinkle. I had so much fun creating this piece. Turquoise is my most favorite color so, of course, my blue piece would be covered in turquoise ;).


I started with a 4x6 canvas board and just started playing. I created my own version of glass bead gel using gel medium and Martha Stewart micro beads and I created the tiny butterflies in the corners using a Martha Stewart butterfly stencil and modeling paste mixed with turquoise paint.

The focal point of the piece is this detailed, layered Chip Art butterfly. Melody Ross' Chip Art collection by GCD Studios is one of the many new creative discoveries I made when I was on my unintentional blogging hiatus. You will see LOTS of chip art showing up in my art now.

I also took an on-line workshop with Christy Tomlinson and used some techniques inspired by her in the piece as well. (More to come on that! Christy is one of my new favorite artists!).


I've decided that I'll be participating in The Summer of Color each week by creating a 4x6 or 5x7 canvas board as the foundation of my piece. By the end of the summer I'll have a very colorful collection of art to display in my studio as inspiration. I'll also be trying new techniques or products in each piece to keep my creative juices fresh!

Thanks for looking! Now I'm off to see what the other participants have created. Remember you can join the party at anytime and you don't have to participate every week. You can read an overview of The Summer of Color, here.



15 comments:

Terrie said...

Love your piece and your idea for creating a group of them in the same size for a whole "art installation" by summer's end. It will a color study - great idea!

Mandy said...

love it..love the texture yu have created on this piece too...xxx

JaN's ArTy JouRneY said...

Love all the texture on your canvas, and a beautiful shade of blue. Looking forward to seeing your rainbow of canvasses over the following weeks :)
Jan x

linda (dots n doodles) said...

Such a beautiful piece and lots of lovely texture.

Lesley Edmonds said...

This is just so lovely. I adore anything with butterflies! So much texture and so many layers.
Beautiful!
If you want to learn how to do faces then Tam's course is really good. Link on my blue lady post.
x

Liette alias Pixelle said...

adore your butterfly over that nice background...really nice...

Kristin said...

YEAH! You're here! I love this - the texture, the color, the dimension - really wonderful work. And I love how you created your own glass beads - how cool is that?! I'm so looking forward to seeing your canvas collection grow - it will make a beautiful display when you're done ;) xoxoxo

Ella said...

I love the elements you used, so much dimension~

Unknown said...

I love this piece. It has many of my favorites and great texture. I would love to learn this technique.

Jen said...

Love it!! Brilliant idea with the homemade bead gel!!

Morph Waffle said...

This is so pretty, great piece!

Sandi McLean said...

Fantastic piece! I want to touch all of those layers..

Jen @Sadie Inspired said...

Turquoise is my fav color too & I love butterflies - so I love this!! I have been wanting to get Melody's chip art stuff. It looks like so much fun. :) I took Christy's She Art class & I adore her!!

Daniele Valois said...

so pretty. I have those butterflies too!

Beverley Baird said...

A gorgous piece! Great quote to start the celebration of colour! Love your description of its description and what you will be doing.