Art has always been my stress reliever, and since I don’t have access to a ceramics wheel this summer, I went to my second best therapy, painting! This weekend I was feeling really overwhelmed with my new position at work, and so I decided to give myself some “me” time, and went out and bought a canvas and set out on making a new painting. Lately landscapes have really been calling to me, as well as unnatural, vibrant colors. I decided to expand on some studies I did last semester and attempt an abstract landscape.

I used acrylic for this piece, although I usually prefer oil. I began to use acrylic because it is so much easier to “erase” things. I also had the thought of playing with gold leaf in my paintings again. Oil takes forever to dry, and since I’m a fan of immediate gratification I decided acrylic would work the best. I started this painting by layering in different shades of white with my palette knife, simply because I can never just start on the stark white of a canvas, so I ironically create my own white to paint on (lol). This is just part of my process, I also enjoy the depth it can add to a painting! I didn’t cover the entire canvas, but if I had to guess I covered about 70%. After my first layer, I divided the space with a horizon line and chunked in some mountain like shapes. I’m a fairly quick painter if I have a vision in mind, but I definitely want to go back into this piece during the week. I’ve finally broken my creative block this summer! What a feeling!