My Painting Journey
Welcome! This is a blog about my art journey. I have always liked drawing and painting. My favorite subject in school was art. I started painting a little more seriously in grade nine. Then I kept on with it and learnt different ways and tried different techniques.
Just the beginning
When I six, I entered a Fathers day drawing contest and ended up winning. My mom told me that was the true start of my artistic journey.
For this contest, I made a drawing of a tent, balloons, butterflies and my dad barbecuing.
Finding my style
When I was in grade nine, I took art as an elective. We learnt different techniques with our pencils for sketching and watercolors for paintings.
I started doing art more at home, including the art I would do at school. I realized I enjoyed painting sunsets and flowers. I steered away from sketching and drawing, and focused on painting.
Pottery
In my art course in high school, I started pottery and used my painting within that too.
I like getting creative and thinking outside of the box: I made a strawberry vase a bowl to put dip/salsa inside and chips/veggies outside, a vase with a sunset scenery and ornaments.
I also took a pottery course with my mom for a bit and worked for my aunt, one summer, making pottery for her shop.
Testing the waters
I got a drawing book and started off by using the for my painting, then I got watercolor paper and once I got a little more comfortable with that I used canvases.
I started using only watercolor paints, and tried adding more water, less water. I tested what would happen if I added water to the paper before, how would that change my painting.
The cabin painting was my first completed canvas painting. I based myself off an image online but added my own twist to it. The crazy part is I don't think I could recreate something like this.
Just add salt
I found another technique to tackle, adding salt to my watercolor paintings. This is a map with salt added.
Sometimes I keep the salt on the piece or I brush it off. It does different things for different paintings, and every time it's a unique outcome.
New technique
After watercolor, I tested out acrylic paints, which are better used on canvases. I painted a sunset with a galaxy, which can be reversed. I completed multiple mandala pieces and flowers.
Then I tried tape painting with acrylics paints. I learned a lot with this technique, because depending on the paint it could go through, therefore I had to paint underneath it before putting the tape on top. I like the way these turn out, and I have multiple people asking to have one for their room. Someone has also purchased a tape painting from me.
Drip drop
I got the supplies to test out acrylic pouring, and I liked the end results. I didn't do this technique very often because it wasted a lot of paint, but I did it here and there.
I used this technique to make the current art and décor that's in my room.
Paper to canvas to skin
I like trying new things and giving myself a challenge, I don't remember where I got the idea from but I decided to try painting on my hand. Some of the art I have done on my hand, I couldn't recreate or try on canvas, because it's different. I use acrylic or watercolor paints, with regular brushes and thin ones to do the details.
I told myself I wanted to try to camouflage. Not knowing if I could do it, I took it step by step. It ended up being a successful challenge.
I've done planets, skylines, some with a message, mandalas, flowers and other ones not shown here.
The bigger picture
My boyfriend at the time, liked football, specifically the New York Giants, I decided to paint him a football field on a blind. I started with the background color and the grass, then I went in with the details. I used a projector beforehand to visualize the piece. This took me a few months to finish.
Around the same time, I painted to football related paintings. These were a big challenge because I had never done anything like it. It was my first and last painting of a person, of a football field and helmet. I am proud of how they turned out and I like the results.
Anything but a canvas
It's fun to paint different items: my grandpa asked me to paint him a mailbox he bought, I painted birds and flowers on there. I used records to paint, they look cool and are easy to hang. I painted a sweater and a jean jacket.
I've also painted wooden jewelry holders and coasters, boxes and frames.
Paint progress
Recently, I have tried watercolor painting on paper again. I thought of different sceneries and formats, I incorporated the reflections in the water and used depth perception to add character to these pieces.
When I started hiking in Ontario, I got inspired by the sceneries on my walks. I always paint colorful, spring, summer, fall paintings but I had never tried winter paintings.
I had attempted to paint waterfalls before but it's never turned out the way I've wanted it to. This time I was able to execute it better.
I love photography and painting, but I had never tried painting a camera and a picture, I used my camera as a reference. I had to really think about how the painting would look in real life, to then be able to put it on paper.
These were a few other paintings I've done using acrylic paints. The butterfly painting is three canvases that can be side by side or separated. I painted it for my grandma last Christmas. The details and little parts of it were difficult, and matching up the canvases was a challenge but I would like to try a multi paint piece again.
A friend of mine pointed out that I hadn't done a night sky canvas painting, because normally I do daylight/sun paintings. The painting was fun to do and really got me thinking.. I looked up some images for reference.
I'm still learning new techniques and I hope to keep challenging myself with new art ideas. I've learned a lot since I started painting, it's been around 9 years of painting. I hope to make a bigger piece in the near future and I have thought about selling my art. I will have to see where my paint brush takes me next.
Josée™
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