Lemonade

You’ve heard that saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Well, as my last post alluded to, I had a background for a piece go wrong. So, I decided to make some “lemonade” out of it. The canvas was originally painted with Setacolor paints, with an acrylic black for the sides. Then I collaged the tissue paper, which gave me a great background, but not what I wanted for the piece that was to be mounted on it. (you can see a portion of that journal quilt at the top of the picture laying on the table) And I wasn’t happy with the medium I was using, although it says “Matte”, it was coming out much glossier than I anticipated, which clashed with the journal quilt.

So, today while shopping, I picked up some Liquitex Gel Medium, and this evening I pulled some “fish” themed fabrics from my stash. I decided to use the same tropical fabric I had used in the original journal quilt, plus a whale (or are those dolphins?) themed batik.

I like how this is coming along, I’m getting a depth that I didn’t expect. The whales were put on in the first layer, then the tropical fish were done in a separate sitting. And now I’ve come to another standstill. I’m thinking maybe some sand on the bottom edge? Or some bubbles from a few fish? Or some sparkles in the “water”? Or do I need to do a light wash over the entire piece to put the tropical fish back “under water”? But I’ve no idea which of these options to do, or how to accomplish a few of them, so for now, I’ll go back to work on the longarm and let this stew in my mind a little bit.