Abstract Floral Painting Process

I thought you might like to see the painting process of my latest abstract floral painting “Colour Me Happy”.

Here you can see I began with black and white with a touch of blue. Lots or random mark making with both paint and pencils. And of course paint drips.

Progress of Colour Me Happy abstract floral painting on my easel

Now I have begun to add some reds and whites to create different tints. More drips too.

Beginning to add some orange and quinacridone gold.

Throughout the process so far I am continually scraping through the colours with a wooden skewer or old plastic credit card (favourite tools).

Next is the introduction of lemons and greens.

At this point I came to a crossroads and couldn’t decide which way I wanted to proceed.
So, I took a photo and uploaded it to my iPad where i worked on it with my Apple Pencil.
It’s a great way to experiment with ideas.

Progress of Colour Me Happy abstract floral painting using my iPad

Then once I was inspired to continue, I proceeded with an added confidence in the direction I wanted to go with this one.

And here is the final result.

Here you can also see it in a room setting, where I can visualise it in its final resting place.
Your home maybe? You will find it to my Online Shop.
It will eventually arrive varnished and ready to hang in the home of whichever collector has the yearning to own this piece of art.

Colour Me Happy abstract floral painting in a room setting

“Colour Me Happy” and I have enjoyed our time together and I hope you have enjoyed viewing our creative journey.

My Floral Artwork Cushions

I am very excited to announce that for a limited period five pieces of my floral artwork are going to be available on cushions and as art prints.

I absolutely LOVE the cushions.

Above all, I am particularly thrilled that these cushions are available through a company who plant three trees for every order they receive. They also use sustainable package and are against modern slavery and make sure there is no modern slavery used in their supply lines.
So a thoroughly ‘green’ company which is wonderful.

Here is an example of one of my art prints.

What more can I tell you?
Well, their prices are very reasonable.
For instance a 17″ (43 cms) square cushion costs £24.95 and an 8″ square (20cms) art print costs £15.95. All prices include UK postage.
But don’t worry, they ship internationally too and their shipping rates are very fair
In addition the cushions and prints come in a variety of sizes.

My floral artwork cushions and art prints will only be available for a limited time until August 16th. The link to purchase is at Wraptious.com

Finally, I have my fingers crossed that I might be selected as an artist for their giftware range. Any purchases of my work or likes on Facebook will give me points towards recognition, so even if you don’t wish to purchase I would be very grateful for your Likes. Here is the link.

Please Like my artwork here on Facebook

And if you like the artwork the originals of these are currently available to purchase in my online shop.

Thank you for taking a look and please wish me luck. 🤞

Fanciful Art – a break from the normal

I have just added some fanciful art – my “Whimsical Houses‘ series of paintings – to my online shop.

These paintings have been an ongoing project for me. I have little spells of painting where I enjoy taking a break from my usual abstract floral paintings.
It’s always good to have a change and these paintings feed my fanciful imagination.
Then I return refreshed to my floral style.

The paintings are generally composed of collage, acrylic paint, pen & pencil. The colours are both vibrant and ethereal.

If you would like to see them in more detail visit my online shop where you can see the various sizes and also see them framed and insitu.

Mixed media art of whimsical houses in situ

Prices vary from €90 – €140 ($100 – $150)
An affordable way to buy a piece of original art.

I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating them.

If you would like to follow my art journey you can find me on Instagram where I share photos and videos of my art process. #lesley.boost.arthappyme

Saatchi Art – featured artist

I have recently added some of my larger paintings for sale to the Saatchi Art website. So, I was delighted to hear that one of my pieces of art has been chosen to be featured in their curated “New This Week Collection”

If you would like to see my art for sale on the Saatchi Art website go to Saatchi Art

Art Process – development of an abstract meadow painting

I thought you might like to see some of the art process from my latest painting “This Side of Heaven”

Unfortunately I only took a few photos shots but it might give you a little glimpse into how the painting developed.

After the initial black and white layer here are some early layers of blues, lilacs and lemons. As you can see there has been a fair bit of paint dripping going on.

Then I have begun to add some reds.

Followed by some oranges.

After this I had a fairly large gap of time way from my art studio. About two weeks away. I was very much looking forward to coming back and working on it. It’s hard to leave a painting when you are in the zone. But because of our enforced time apart we were very glad to see each other again and I was filled with enthusiasm on my return.

The final part of the process was to work into the negative space and bring it all together. This is where my mind begins to see the suggestion of a meadow full of flowers. Maybe there is a hint of January frost in there too.

I loved the final outcome.

Titled “This Side of Heaven”. 24″ x 28″acrylic on canvas.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my art process.

“Mini Me” small art

When I don’t have time to paint ‘big’ because of life commitments or travelling I still have to get my daily creative fix. This is when I work on my ‘Mini Me’ small art paintings.

Generally these are watercolour, although not always. I find it very relaxing to paint in watercolour and it makes a nice change from my acrylics.

Then I like to doodle on top. Doodling is fun. Also very relaxing. I am always looking for different ways to doodle.

Once these are mounted they make great small pieces of colourful art.

These mounted pieces fit perfectly into an Ikea Ribba picture frame.

I love my “Mini Me” paintings.

If you would like to see more they are available to purchase in my new Etsy shop. Yes, I finally got round to opening a shop there. So pop along to ArtHappyMe on Etsy and take a look.

New Abstract Meadow Painting

I have been working on a new abstract meadow painting. This one is bringing me much joy. I LOVE the colours and it has been a dream to work with. One of those paintings where everything just seemed to fall in place nicely. I don’t think I am quite finished with it yet. I will let it sit for a while and gaze at it from time to time to see if our conversation is over.

Here is how it began.

First layer of abstract meadow acrylic painting

And here are a few little close ups showing some of the details.

Close up detail from abstract meadow painting

Close up detail from abstract meadow acrylic painting

Pencil Study

Today I decided it was about time I did a little pencil study to better understand the behaviour of my pencils. I use mark making a great deal in my work and sometimes I want the pencil mark to move or bleed into my paints and other times I want it to remain on the painting as a sharp line.

I have a large range of pencils that I have accumulated over time and generally I don’t spend a great deal of time choosing which one I want to use. But sometimes they don’t behave on the artwork the way I had intended, so I thought it was about time I did another little pencil experiment.

You will see here that I have quickly drawn out a few boxes and with each pencil I have drawn inside a box with a few straight lines and another with a solid scribbled line. Then with each box I have painted over with clear water to see how water soluble they were.

It was interesting to see that different brands of the same type of pencil can behave differently. You will see here that the Koh – I -Noor HB pencil bled less with water than the Royal Graphite HB pencil. That is why it is important to know your pencils.

From the 28 pencils that I experimented with the ONLY pencil that did not move or bleed with water was the Chinamarker, which I guess I already knew.

The most water soluble ones that I used, that is the ones that bled the darkest black, were the ArtGraf and Stabilo Woody.

These were closely followed by:

Graphite LYRA Water Soluble
Stabilo Aquarellable 8046
Derwent Inktense
Stabilo Carbathello
Conte à Paris

And my final conclusion was that I have far too may pencils!

I probably could whittle them down to about 5 or 6 different types. So I may just keep that selection in a different container so that I can easily find the one that I want.

I hope you have found this little experiment useful.

My You Tube Channel

Today I created my You Tube channel and I have added my first video tutorial.

It is a very useful little tutorial on how to solve the problem of buckled or warped artwork on paper.

I always used to struggle with my watercolour paper buckling and had read many tips and watched videos on how to prevent this happening. I had tried most of them without very good results and always found it very frustrating. Nobody would want to purchase artwork on a distorted piece of paper. So I came up with my own method, which I have shared with you in this video.

I should also add, as I mention in the video, that the better quality watercolour paper that you use makes a huge difference in preventing buckling in the first place. I now always buy 120lb or 140lb watercolour paper. It really is worth paying the extra.But if you are having problems with your watercolour paper buckling do pop over to You Tube and watch my video. It is only 7 minutes long and demonstrates this very simple but effective solution of mine.

Hope you enjoy it.