8x10 Sailboat: Painted Jan. 4 & 6, 2010

8x10 Sailboat
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium acrylic
gesso primed canvases)

On January 4th I saw I still had paints under plastic wrap, but they were solidifying. Rather than just toss them.. I made a background filling most of the canvas. Purple-like blues melting into turquoise-like greens making what I had hoped would someday be a magical looking sky.

When I completed the ACEO Sailboat.. I immediately wanted to try it a size larger. So out came the canvas that already had the background painted in. I tried to paint along a plastic ruler to get the horizon.. but the paint bled underneath. I tried to use edges of paper, but paint found ways to sneak in everywhere. Any way that I tried to 'cheat' I was thwarted by the paint. I had to correct the line to make it straight by hand.

When I started the boat, I was thinking of how pleased I was with the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 version. I made the mistake of making the curved sail solid. I was so upset! But I remember my mother one time cleaning a canvas with a paper towel or some cloth.. and immediately rushed to get water on the canvas. Since the background was there for over 24 hours.. it remained almost intact while I cleaned off the black paint.

Almost intact.. I had to create a color by mixing a dark blue into a white and cover where while canvas was peeking through. But, once that was done.. I was able to retry the shape of the boat and paint it as I did the smaller version.

I wanted to make a boat on a bigger surface, so I did. And I had hoped that background would be a magical sky one day. I think it worked out.

I never want to paint multiple versions of my own painting, making reproductions with paint instead of prints. Even when I have the same subject (tree, boat, etc) I want to have different skies (or some other noticeable difference). Although my two boats are very similar, I feel that their skies tell different stores. This one whispers, "Magic." While the other whispered, "Calm." Both are gentle whispers, but the words have different meanings.