Art on Wine Labels

So excited to start 2019 off this way! My art on two labels of red wine for #chestnutoakvineyard in Barboursville, VA.
I did approximately 11 works on paper and they chose these two.

New Painting

I am happy the composition that emerged in this painting. I painted on raw canvas and I think the novelty of the experience slowed me down and kept me from overworking it. I was surprised that the painting became about texture. The brush strokes did not readily stick to the raw canvas and this gave a dry brush effect. I thought it was going to be more poured stains and look like watercolor. I will now seal the back and the front of the canvas to keep it from shifting in color.

"Soft Landing", acrylic on raw canvas, 25"x 39"
Carol H. Barber © 2017

Our Primordial Tree

This is a large piece, 36 x 24. I was still working with the thick surface texture in this painting.

Always Learning

I am varnishing all of the paintings I have done over the last few months and I am starting to appreciate some of them more and more. I see that I have been in an expressive brush stroke phase. Doing more brushstrokes I believe is a result of attending the Skip Lawerence workshop. At the time I didn't know what if anything I was getting from that but I did grow and change. And brushstrokes were not his focus for the workshop. My earlier acrylic paintings were more like watercolors because I was using lots of fluid medium. I would like to do some paintings that combine the two more successfully. Lots of variation with thin washed areas, brush strokes with heavier paint and maybe even some collaged paper. With all of that, I have learned the shape and composition will need to be simpilier.