"Gatineau Hills Ballet" -

"Gatineau Hills Ballet" - 24" x 24" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

My obsession with negative painting continues with this latest addition to my "Leaves" series. This is the largest painting of the series so far; it is 24" x 24" on a deep gallery wrapped canvas.

 My neighborhood has dozens of gorgeous old oak trees and during my walks I always find myself admiring their beautiful leaves... and when I return home, I find myself wanting to paint them.  These days I am also obsessed with painting swirls, mazes, tangles.....I hope all of these don't make you dizzy:-)
I will be offering prints of this painting on Fine Art America for a short while in ..landscapes art.This painting is too heavy to ship:-)

Let me know what you think.
I hope that you are enjoying nice autumn weather where you are. Best of all, take care!

Forest Light: Another Negative Technique Painting

"Forest Light": Another Negative Technique Painting

Forest Light

Note: on my monitor, the painting is much brighter than in real life on this site, while it uploads closer to the real values on Facebook. Strange!

I have just finished another acrylic painting of leaves in negative painting technique. I think this will be enough leaves for a while at least:-)

The painting is 16" x 20" and I have painted the sides blue. I am not sure yet if I will leave it as is or get it framed since it is not on a gallery wrapped canvas.

Now, I will go and work on a watercolor commission and think about what I will paint next.

I wish you a great week!

Latest painting and Great Summer Workshops!

This weekend I decided to play in the studio and created Forest Glow - 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas
I really had fun creating this painting of a small corner of an imaginary forest. Since I love solving puzzles and sudokus,  I think it is not surprising that I never get tired of the negative painting techniques and love to carve stem after stem, leaf after leaf into a colorful background. It is like working in a maze:-) I hope you don't find the result too chaotic.

 I have been very fortunate to have taken several workshops with the "Ambassador of Negative Painting", Linda Kemp. Last summer, I took a one-day workshop with this great lady and just over a week ago, I attended the Holbein Vermont Event and attended 3 half-day workshops with Linda. What a treat!
The same week, I took a half-day workshop with the well-known American landscape painter, Ken Muenzenmayer. His landscapes are so luminous. He paints as many as 50 layers on ampersand panels to achieve a wonderful glow! 
In early June, I signed up for my first ever portraiture class...I had never even tried to draw a face I think...I certainly was more than a bit apprehensive:-) The class was being offered by a visiting artist from France, Monsieur Habib Chamat.

Habib was a wonderful teacher and in four days he had me sketching faces and painting portraits in acrylic. Don't laugh at the portrait below of an imaginary man: this is my first ever portrait and I am proud of it:-) My next attempt at portraiture will be the portrait of my 96 year-old mother...

My First Portrait

 What wonderful experiences...and quite humbling at the same time to watch all these excellent artists and teachers paint....I can't wait for another great workshop opportunity.

Wishing you a great month of August!

Christiane

Dreaming of Canadian autumn:-)

Dreaming of Canadian autumn:-)
A small 6" x 8" acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas all done in negative painting technique. It shows the subtle dance and shimmer of autumn leaves carried away on the surface of a stream.
Currently available online on Daily Paintworks :
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/christiane-kingsley/canadian-autumn/242548

I got fascinated with negative painting techniques last summer after taking a workshop with renowned watercolor/acrylic painter Linda Kemp, who is often called the "ambassador for negative painting".  I will be taking more workshops with her this year.  I find negative painting totally addictive!

More on my acrylic journey

I have to admit it: I am totally hooked on acrylics! I am also hooked on negative painting!

Here are three paintings I have done in the past two weeks:

"The Dancers Below the Surface"

 

 

This 12" x 16" painting on canvas went through many transformations. I started with reds and oranges and ended up with these muted blues.

"Shimmer on the Pond"

As you can see, I have also developed an obsession with leaves and water:-) This 9"x 12" acrylic painting is on a cradled gessobord made by the Ampersand company.

"The Last Waltz"

This 3rd acrylic painting is 8" x 10" and is on Claybord by Ampersand. This glass-like surface does not photograph well; in real life, it has a wonderful glossy surface. It requires getting used to, but it is wonderfully different.

I love to experiment and the last few weeks I have felt so energized by my new journey with acrylic paints. I hope that you will like these paintings.

I hope that you are all enjoying these summer days.

Still Playing...but learning at the same time

"Sea Waltz" - 5" x 7" x 7/8" on Ampersand panel

This weekend, I experimented with Ampersand Claybord panels that I had purchased in NYC two years ago. I used acrylics and this "structured and tight" painter  tried her hand at intuitive negative painting without any preliminary drawing or even a plan! My, what is happening to me???

Well, I had fun! I think by the end of the painting I was totally hooked on creating those little bits of light through and between the free-form leaves. I tried to stop before I had drilled a huge whole through those plants to reveal only the blue water:-)

What have I learned through this play? Well, I am better at understanding the concept of negative painting, I am more aware of what "lies behind or beneath", and I am starting to appreciate the surface of the claybord.

I think I will try something similar on a lager 5/8" thick Ampersand panel that is hiding somewhere in my studio.
Have a great weekend....and don't despair...I will return to my "serious" paintings before long.