8x10: Arrival. Completed September 21, 2010

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

The last time I painted on stretched canvas was in March 2010. I have had blank canvases around me for a while, but I have been distracted by my amusement in painting art cards.

On September 19th, I had an idea to paint on stretched canvas. I started to set things up outside.. thinking I would try to paint there and attempt a video of it as well. However, a swarm of mosquitoes caused me to flee indoors. Thankfully, I had doodled a quick thumbnail sketch of my idea earlier that day.. so I could return to it another time.

On September 20th I painted the background near an open window. I used a little Primary Blue, a lot of Titanium White and along the bottom is Light Portrait Pink. The video of the background being painted can be seen on YouTube. (Check out the Video: Painting a Background on September 20, 2010 post in my Art Diary.)

September 21st, I added the silhouette with Mars Black. I had set up my new mini tripod to video the painting.. however mid-way during the process the next door neighbor yelled quite a bit. Due to this, I stopped videoing and tried to just focus on doing my very best to paint that hand on the side of the painting. I was very excited about the concept of this painting and did not let failing the video attempt discourage me.

I wanted it to look like the balloon was just released... but really it is returning. The concept is: Sometimes when it looks like Love is flying away, it is actually landing. It is an arrival, not a departure. The idea of balloons arriving instead of flying away came from a small adventure I had in July 2010. (Curious about the July adventure? Read about it here: Balloon Adventurers)