I painted my interpretation of "Frieda" on an 8 1/2" X 11" canvas panel while attempting experiment with "grunge" art. I have been playing around with several mixed mediums and observing the techniques of so many wonderful online artists. I wanted to try some of the things I use to do artistically. Having at least 400 CLEAN rubber stamps that I purchased from my late friend, Vickie Enkroff, I decided to try some out on this canvas. I was trying to loosen up and get "crazy" with my painting. I found a 5 gallon can of gesso (over 20 years old) that was still workable and went to work on painting everything white; attempting to get enough nerve to put some color on my palette. Thus came "Frieda" (if you did not recognize those eyebrows) that I painted for my friend Stephanie F. because she loves the artist's work.
Stephanie and I are both dialysis patient and that keeps you hooked up to machines for most of the day, but I wanted to finish the little painting so that I would have an excuse to meet her for lunch. and give it her as a present (do not tell her). I felt something was messing from the piece, but called it finished. I was not jumping up about it. It resembled one of my many ATC/AECO that I have painting hundreds of times and was trying to get away from the style for now. After several coats of acrylic varnish, I finally turned it over to my hubby so that he could make a simple wooden frame for my first painting since 2003yr. The canvas panel warped a little because of all the wet layers of polymers and water mediums I used. Per hubby, a lot warped, but he was just happy to see me picking up a paint brush again (another day, another story). So my loving art conservator all-around-handyman, went about his work. He layed the painting face down on some kind of rubber shelf lining material and placed three small oxygen tanks on top of the back of it to make it lay flat. After about a week, I asked him about the progress of the wooden frame...
Do you see those blue dots one side of the face? Blue rubber shelf lining stuff!! I could feel tears coming and looked up to see a face of terror staring back at me; waiting for a my reaction as he spilled out apologies for messing up my painting. NOW, I am an artist (and a wife of over 20 years) and with that comes a certain amount of melodrama (and I can be good at it). I could see that husband was waiting for me to bite his head off his shoulders. But (hating to admit it) I liked the dots better. What do you think?
