And the world opened up to her colour.

The world opened up to her colour...

“A  kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.” ~John Steinbeck, East of Eden.

Steinbeck's quotation has an added meaning these days. Let us hope that the world will open out soon, and that wars and pandemics will end and people will find, nurture, and appreciate the good in each other.

First published in July, 2017.

“The world opened up to her colour”.  9 x 12 mixed media on watercolour paper.

The details of this portrait on paper.

For this portrait, I experimented with bronze leafing.

In my art stash, I found some old carved leaf stamps that I had prepared for another assignment a few years ago.

Here's proof that as an artist, I am a bit of a hoarder...the old bronze sheets of leafing paper had been in my cupboard since the 1990s. As this was an experiment, of course you would expect things to go off the track so to speak. And they did! First, I glued on the leafing sheets the wrong way and I had to start that over. Live and learn once more!

The acrylics for this portrait are watered considerably to give the effect of watercolour. This is a technique I learned (and am far from having mastered) from artist Lauren Rudolph. You can see her amazingly vivid paintings by visiting Lauren's website.

I have used watered acrylics here in Letting Troubles Float Away and here .

I added stamped lettering (store bought) in the background. The colours were achieved with Neocolours II with added Pitt Pastel pens used in her hair.

It seems to be a pattern lately to throw everything that I possibly can at a painting and see what happens.

The learning continues.