This summer is my self-proclaimed Summer of Art and I have an enormous amount of art projects just waiting for me to get started on. It’s very exciting to see that I finally have time to create during the summer after two years of spending my summers in class at Lackawanna. Since the semester ended, I’ve been graciously surprised with the amount of work I’ve been asked to do that has not been on my summer to-do list. I’ve done sketches/illustrations for a book, I’ve painted wooden card holders, and I’m in the process of touching up and painting plastic chairs, a light fixture, and a stone tablet with faded flowers. And then of course, I have my actual list for the summer that I have yet to start on, and it is honestly such a good problem to have. The only downside is that I think I’ll have to carry some of these projects into next summer. The silver lining is that at least I know I’ll be able to stay productive and create art that excites me.

The summer project I want to show you right now is a work in progress! I’m still doing really well in the department of forgetting to take before and after pictures, and honestly, forgetting to take the ‘before’ picture is just too easy. To preface the work in progress with some context, my aunt gave my mom a table that was not in the best condition, and rather than using it in the okay condition that it was in, I decided to fix it up and give it a fresh coat of paint with a fun and summer-y design. 

Originally, the surface was glass, and beneath it was a sandpaper-y black surface. I was skeptical about covering the glass with paint, but given that the bottom of the table was severely peeling and the glass was not in the best shape, I was excited that I had the opportunity to paint such a fun shape. I had so many ideas for this table (none of which I felt too eager to do), and spent almost a year (probably more like seven months, but close enough) procrastinating because I didn’t know what I wanted to paint on it. My mom had yet to really choose a color scheme for the place on the patio where she wanted to place the table, and I was feeling sorely uninspired. I had spray painted black priming paint over the glass around the beginning of April, and then left it to dry, and left it for a good week or two after that because I just didn’t know what to paint on it.

Inspiration for the table hit me randomly and I decided that I was just going to take some watered down white acrylic paint and go for it. I liked the direction of my sketch, and so I started painting it. I wanted to incorporate blues and yellows because that was the color scheme that was surrounding the area where the table will sit, and honestly, this is just a fun project for me that I didn’t really feel like thinking about. Of course I thought about composition and the colors, but for the most part, my main goal is to just have fun with it and do what comes to mind while I’m painting. I’m really excited to see what I end up doing color wise, and I may even change up the designs of the clouds.