Shoreline and Sea Landing

Happy New Year.  I'm a little late posting.

I haven't posted for quite a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been painting.  There have been a lot of changes and things going on.  The best way for me to deal with it is to step back and regroup to decide which direction to go.

Now we have a new year and I have entered these two paintings into a Federation Show.  I have more paintings lined up to enter into other shows.  I will see if this helps me to go in the direction I am aiming for.

Both of these paintings are what I call Intuitive Landscapes.  I started with acrylic marbling.  The top one I also added sand and gravel with acrylic medium.  After they dried I painted clear gesso over the surface and then painted with transparent and opaque oil.  The transparent paint is especially important over the marbled area so that the effect of the marbling will show through.

The bottom one also has a lot of thick opaque palette knife work which contrasts nicely with the transparent areas.

Both are a reflection of the areas that I live in which I am so happy for.

I wish you happy creating and a successful 2019.

Blessings

Bente

October Sky by Canadian Artist Bente Hansen

October Sky 30x40 Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas  (Currently on Hold)

This painting is rich with thick paint and strokes of complimentary colours to make the painting stand out.  It is painted on the sides so that no frame is required.

The subject is the west coast of British Columbia with the great skies, mountains and rock walls.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Surfacing, Mixed Media by Canadian Artist Bente Hansen

Surfacing 24x24 Mixed Media by Bente Hansen  SOLD

This painting is done on a gallery wrapped canvas painted on the sides so that no frame is required.

When I started with this painting it was truly abstract. I used a very large brush and paynes gray acrylic paint.   I was adding paper and cheesecloth when suddenly the whale image appeared.  It grew from there.  I do not usually add people or animals in my painting unless they show up of their own accord.  That is what happened here.

In the image below you can see my pastel scribbles over the image trying out different ideas before applying more paint.  The beauty of the pastel is you can wipe it off if you don't like it or you can spray a fixative on if you like it and keep it as part of your image.  It is recommended that if you do spray it you then put a coat of clear medium over it to make it permanent.

There were many steps and coats of paint after that but I think you get the idea.

Feel free to send me an email if you have questions.

bentecreates@gmail.com

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Coastal II Mixed Media by Canadian artist Bente Hansen

Coastal II  12x12 Mixed Media on board
This mixed media piece has many layers of transparent paint and different papers. It had a life of its own.  I dropped some paper onto it and when I looked at the board the start of a bird appeared.  I worked on it from there.  It took many transformations with pastel and paper added.

The size is a standard size so it is easily framed.  It arrives varnished.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

Rock Solid, mixed media, by Bente Hansen, Canadian Artist

Rock Solid  18x18 Mixed Media on Wooden Cradle Board  $395.00

Nicholas Wilton speaks of Value, Differences, Color contrast and more.  These are some of the things that we strive for in what is called CVP. It's been a mind twister of a course but I am starting to see that some of the things that the team is speaking of is rubbing off.

This painting was done with acrylics and thick gel medium using mostly a palette knife.  This is the closest I have come to using acrylics in the same manner that I use my oils.  It'll be interesting to see what happens when we get to texture.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente

mixed media on wood panel by Canadian Artist Bente Hansen

Mixed Media 12x12 on wood panel $175

There are many many layers of paint, paper, gauze, glazes and scribbling.

I am learning not to give up and keep doing layer over layer with glazes and collage.

The Nicholas Wilton team of many many coaches are great encouragement to be ourselves.  I love my environment, province and country and it keeps showing up in my work.

Blessings for a great day

Bente

White Night 10x10 Mixed Media on Watercolour paper

White Night 10x10 Mixed Media on Watercolour Paper

Its been interesting times.

I enrolled in Nicholas Wilton's online class called 2018 Art2Life program.  There are about 500 of us from around the world.  What the program has done for me so far is turn everything upside down and totally confused me.  I think the stretch is good in that he wants us to do what is totally ourselves and not be influenced by others.  The stretch is also that we are using acrylic paint.  This is not my favourite medium.  I do love my oils.  When the program is over I will go back to my oils but for now its too confusing for my brain to keep switching.

White Night is a result of one of the black and white exercises. It is done on paper.  It has many many layers of paint so there is lots of texture.  I have added some collage and the line work was done on clear plastic with acrylic medium.  I then removed the film when the whole thing was dry.  That way I could cut out what I needed and leave the rest for another time.

Blessings for a great day.

Bente