A Day at the beach

A Day at the beach, acrylic mixed media 16x16  $225

Acrylic mixed media painted on wooden cradle board.  Painted on the sides so that no frame is required.

This one started as an acrylic pour.  I felt it needed more oomph and so I started looking through my cache of beach finds.  The dried up seaweed, parts of shells, beach glass and pebbles.  The gauze painted with gold acrylic was the only attachment that wasn't a beach find.

It's quite interesting when I am walking my pooch on the beach.  We are usually looking out at the beautiful scenery but there are times, at low low tide for example, when there is a twinkle in the sand or something that doesn't blend in with the rest.  This gets my attention and I end up going home with a pocket full of small flat pebbles or shells or even dried seaweed.  I also have a huge container of rusty stuff.  I think, this winter, I will be trying to stain rice paper for my encaustics with that.

We will see how this influences my work in the future.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Night Life, Mixed Media, Bente Hansen

Night Life Acrylic Mixed Media 8x10 on Cradle Board  $80

This painting started out as an acrylic pour.  The initial image that came to mind was an evening beach scene but I thought it was too weak.  I added pearlescent acrylic inks and some of my beach finds, including skeletons of baby crabs, shells and small pebbles.  To me this is a true water scene with all the bubbles and little images.

It is painted on the sides so that it can be hung without a frame.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Art Cards

 Getting ready for the studio tour this weekend.  Thought it would be a good idea to make some personalized art cards.  Last year I made book marks by dragging watercolor paper through paint that I had put in my enamel palette.  I liked some of the results so much that I kept the book marks and thought it would be fun to do some quick watercolor sketches on watercolor card stock.

Below you see some papers that I made using a baby press.  It was fun getting different results using 3 layers of rice paper.  The Akua inks are water based so I will be able to use them with my acrylic mixed media and encaustic as well.  I loved the top left hand corner one where I printed 3 layers of ink and then the final one was gold on the backside.  The jewel toned effect was fabulous.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Breaking Free

Breaking Free 10x18 Encaustic Mixed Media on Cedar Board $175

This painting is done on a kiln dried cedar board.  It is gessoed with encaustic gesso and there are many beach finds including the feathers plus paper and gauze.

This painting tells a story or you can create your own.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente