A Review of 2012

2012 was a wonderful year for me. I've been able to focus full time on my art, enter national exhibitions, work with new galleries, learn about the business side of art, and enjoy memories by painting people and places I know and have visited.  I have to thank my wonderful husband, Chas, for all of his support this year, which has contributed in so many ways to my success.
 
The video above includes examples of the art I created and exhibited during 2012.  All paintings I exhibited nationally are included here as are a few examples of portraits I painted for a book of Family Portraits completed in 2012.  Some very recent paintings that have not yet seen the light of day are also included in this video.  Enjoy!

Some of this work will be included in my solo exhibit "Travel the World through Transparent Media"  at the Columbia Art Center in Columbia, Maryland during February 2013.  That exhibit includes my water media and fused glass art.  During the reception on February 9th from 3 - 5 pm I plan to give an artist talk describing the connections between the fused glass and water media pieces.

Poinsettia Tree, 40" X 37" watercolor and fluid acrylic

Poinsettia Tree by April M. Rimpo

The inspiration for Poinsettia Tree started during a trip to Guatemala where the Poinsettia was a tree with blooms larger than I had ever seen towering way above my head.  I took several photographs trying to capture their magnificence just to discover that the photographs did not come close.  I felt I needed to paint them as they were in my minds eye to make them come to life.

I decided I wanted to capture the size of the tree by working in a much larger format than I normally paint, the image size is 40” X 37”, which meant starting from a roll of elephant size Arches Hot Press.  I selected Hot Press since I wanted to create an organic feel in the background by using an acrylic “batik” approach I had learned from Nicholas Simmons, applying sections of paint and then washing it off before it was fully dry.  This approach creates interesting edges and irregular patches of color.  However, instead of letting the batik dry before applying more paint I immediately applied several other acrylic colors to allow them to blend on the very wet paper. Phthalo Blue and  Dioxazine Purple were used in shadow areas of the foliage while Green Gold and other warmer greens were used in the green areas in the sun. I had applied a film mask over the flowers before I started to paint so the petals were protected from the flowing acrylic paint allowing me to work the background and leaves loosely. Since I feel watercolor is slightly more transparent than fluid acrylic I used watercolor to paint the blossoms of the poinsettia.


Recently I had limited edition archival prints made of this painting. A maximum of 50 prints will be created in each size and substrate listed below. 

Poinsettia Tree

40" x 37" image

48" x 45" bronze tone frame

$2590

Available through HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

410.461.3505 info@horsespiritartsgallery.com 

Interested in a print, contact April.

To see other paintings where I used a combination of fluid acrylic and watercolor look here.

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.