"Dancers" 6" X 6" Mixed Media

Dancers by April M Rimpo

Dancers

Mixed Media

6" X 6" X 1.5" wood cradle

$100 shipped within U.S.

Available to Purchase Now

In Dancers I decided to create a mixed media painting starting from a sheet of watercolor I had prepared during the January 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. I hadn't included any of my fused glass in a painting in a long time but I was feeling a need for a change of pace, so I fired up my small kiln and created a few items that I thought I could used on some small mixed media paintings. 

The fused glass included here is of a woman dancing with a child. When I started the painting I wasn't sure where I was headed for a background, thinking some non-objected abstract should work well. However, toward the beginning of the painting I noticed I had unintentionally created the shape of the tall woman on the left and decided immediately that she too should be dancing with a little girl. I added some strokes to give the feel of motion and swirling skirts. 

The next day I decided I needed to emphasize the torsos and immediately thought to add some sheet music collage elements, similar to what I did in my "Rhythm" series. So the collage elements were added along with some darker strokes to continue to emphasize the flow and shape of the woman and child.

I always like to add some linear elements to a painting that has a lot of curves to break up the flow and introduce places to stop your eye from wandering aimlessly. Adding some dots I felt would beckon back to the sheet music.  Now that the painting is done it seems to me the woman might be playing an instrument with a bow. I'll let you decide.  

Enjoy this playful painting.

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More "Rhythm" - A Series Continued

"Rhythm II" 12" x 12" acrylic on canvas

"Rhythm III" 24" X 24" watercolor, varnished and framed by April M Rimpo

I had so enjoyed the first non-objective paintings with a musical theme I decided to round out the year with a couple more. I enjoy the effect different color schemes have on similar paintings.  The warm color scheme on the left feels lively and vibrant, while the cool color scheme is more calm and soothing.  You might find it interesting to read this interesting article "Color Psychology: How Colors impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors" by Kendra Cherry.

The first painting was done on a gallery wrapped canvas, so I opted to use acrylic paint.  I find acrylic works better on canvas than watercolor.

For the cool color scheme painting I  used watercolor on watercolor paper; I do enjoy the flow of watercolor on paper.  To create the lightest blues and grays I mixed darker watercolor pigments with white gouache.  Both paintings are varnished with an acrylic varnish so neither is framed under glass.

To see my other non-objective painting inspired by music and instruments

• "Rhythm" - An abstract with a theme

To read about gallery wrapped paper visit my blog on this topic.