Tea with Granny, mixed media tea cups, 18″ x 18″, ©Kellie Day, available

I have been making patterns. Patterns from stamps, from acrylic paint, illustration, rice paper and so on. All for a class I am teaching this month at night, at the local historic theatre, for Art Bar (that’s when you get to have a glass of wine and paint).

It’s social painting, light painting, fun painting. And such a non-intimidating way to begin.

Which is important, because I think the hardest part of painting is beginning. And especially if you don’t paint a lot, and could be discouraging if your painting isn’t a masterpiece right off.

So I made sheets of patterns, and then collaged them onto a canvas.

It was so pretty I was not sure what to do with this canvas, (another problem that stops painters – being afraid to ruin the painting) …  The next day I walked into my studio and could see what I wanted to do: I used an eyedropper to draw thick, child-like, black lines around the prettiest parts of the patterns, creating tea cups. (The colors were so glorious!)

Antique pink has really been on my mind lately, because I found an old asian flyer for a lantern with this color – you can see it at the top middle of this artwork.

I mixed up a similar antique pink and a buttery white, and got lost in the lusciousness of these creamy, heavy body paints. I mixed them with a Golden Matte Medium, which made them even more spreadable.

I call this “window painting”, when you paint around an object, thus creating a “window” to look into, of what was originally on the canvas.

In the end, I put a gloss coating on the China, and a matte coating on the background, so the effect is really marvelous in person. Wish you could see it up close!

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, contact me here.

If you are interested in taking this Art Bar class, register here.