New Mixed Media Painting and Advice from Annie Dillard

"Still Life with Bird" - 24" x 24"
Mixed Media Collage

I had fun painting this mixed media collage over the holidays.  With more free time at my disposal, I took advantage of the opportunity to search the Internet for inspiration.  I came across the work of Laurie Breen, a mixed media artist from Brentwood, MD. I absolutely love her paintings!  The painting of mine above is influenced by her works.  

As you scroll down the page, you can see the process I went through to create this painting -- including a big mistake I made and how I corrected it.

And while we're on the subject of inspiration, I want to share a favorite quote from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard.  I found myself reflecting on her advice while I was painting. Although she is speaking specifically of writing here, I believe her words apply to all creative arenas:

                  "One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away,

                  every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it,

                  give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to

                  spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, 

                  from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is

                  not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost

                  to you. You open your safe and find ashes."

The early stages -- putting down some collage papers and a bit of paint.

I initially painted the canvas all over with a base coat of pinkish-yellow acrylic paint.  On top of this I glued torn dictionary and book pages, pieces of dress patterns, parts of a map of New Mexico, and various other colorful collage papers I'd made previously.  I placed the papers on the canvas in somewhat random fashion.

Have you notice the mistake yet?  It's most obvious in the version below.  

Here it is:  the blue bottle on the far left is painted wrong.  If it's behind the orange bottle, the bottom of it would be higher on the painting than the bottom of the orange bottle.  I agonized over this for a while, not wanting to spend time on it since the painting was almost done.  Ultimately I decided I to repaint it and I'm glad I did.  I never would have been satisfied with the painting if I'd left it with this flaw.

And here's the final version (above) -- with blue bottle repainted, some greenery in the red vase, a bit of shading and a few other details tweaked in order to complete the painting.