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"It’s a Beautiful Day", Original Mixed Media Painting by Colorado Artist, Donna L. Martin

"It's a Beautiful Day"


This tree and little bird emerged as I was attempting to do some "intuitive" painting.  I took a class a few months ago from the fabulous artist, Tracy Verdugo, to learn how to do this style and technique of painting.  Boy, has is been challenging for me!  I truly, truly love it though ~ you never know where you are going when you start out or where you will finish.  Below are some pictures of the evolution of this piece.




To start out, I divided the canvas up into squares and chose some colors I wanted to use.  Some squares were dark, some lighter.  The images and marks I made are symbolic to me.  I had just returned from a trip to the ocean and had never seen water that beautiful.  It totally inspired me!




In this step, I added acrylic inks over the entire piece.  Cool colors on one side, warmer colors on the opposite side.  You can see how some of the marks still show through.



This is the tricky and most challenging part for me.  I am trying to see what forms or what images may appear on the canvas.  I turned it sideways and upside down to see if I could spot something.  Low and behold, a faint image of the wings appeared and it seemed to be the perfect shape for a bird.




In this next step, I painted out some of the parts of the painting that weren't necessary to the composition, but still left a hint of the layers underneath.  I just love this!

Low and behold, this is the completed piece.




This piece is fresh off the easel.  It has vibrant, beautiful hues of turquoise, blues, and greens with pinches of orange, pink, yellow, and white.  It measures 24 X 24 on a gallery wrapped canvas.  It is available for purchase.  

If you have questions, comments, or are interested in purchasing, please feel free to contact me at saltlightwatercolors@yahoo.com.  You can also browse my website at donnamartinfineart.com and follow me on Facebook.







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