City 10" X 10" mixed media

City by April M Rimpo

These paintings are titled "Country" and "City". My inspiration for the "City" painting came during a Touchstone Gallery reception.  I stepped outside during the reception and took some photographs of DC at night. Since I was planning a tree scene for "Country" I thought my image of one of the trees in front of the gallery lit by a street light would be a nice companion.  There were bicycles parked by the tree and those, of course, had to be included. In fact they were the reason I had taken the photograph.  This led to my decision to add a bicycle to the "Country" painting.  

City

Mixed Media

10" X 10"

$250

Available for purchase here

Country by April M Rimpo - SOLD

Both of these paintings were started on canvas and on rice paper. The rice paper was used to create textures in the foliage. It was attached to the canvas and then I add more paint to the rice paper surface allowing the underpainting on the canvas shine through.  







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Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2015 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution, but all other uses are prohibited.

Let there be trees! A variety of mixed media: ink, fused glass and more

Standing Tall II by April M Rimpo

I'm not quite sure what got in me, but I suddenly did a flurry of tree paintings. All a bit different in style while I try out a variety of approaches.  This first painting was done starting on rice paper that was crinkled then dipped lightly into a solution of water and India Ink with just a touch of oil. The goal is to pick up some of the ink on the creases in the rice paper.  The rice paper is flattened and attached to watercolor paper. Once dry I went back with watercolor and fluid acrylic to add color variations.

Standing Tall II

Ink, Watercolor and Acrylic on Rice Paper

Mounted on 14" X 11" X2" deep cradle, Wood Panel
Protected with Acrylic Varnish 
$425

Included in the 2018 Celebration of the Arts Silent Auction

Three Trees by April M Rimpo

Three Trees is a mixed media painting using Acrylic and fused glass elements that I created in my kiln.  In this case my inspiration came from the glass pieces, which have a variety of colored stripes. The colors in the glass became the palette for the painting. The angles of the stripes were echoed in the painting as well.

Three Trees

Mixed Media with Fused Glass

Mounted on 5" X 7" X 1.5" deep cradled, wood panel

$90

Under the Canopy by April M Rimpo

In Under the Canopy I wanted the world under the tree canopy to be a bit indistinct and mystical. A few dragonflies are present, some created in fused glass and some created by building up an acrylic gel "painting" to add depth to the painted dragonflies. Several colors are layered to create the mystery of the woods. As in my earlier Standing Tall painting, the roots are visible penetrating the ground like we are looking at a cross section of the forest.

Under the Canopy

Mixed Media with Fused Glass

16" X 12" Mounted on 1/8" Aquabord 

Varnished, Unframed
$375

I'd love to hear which of these you like best and why. Feedback is a wonderful thing.

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2016 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

In Search of New Textures

What you likely know about my work is that I often like to include as much visual texture as I think fits with the piece.

Join the Crowd by April M Rimpo

Sometimes I drip or spray water on an area that has started to dry to force some small lighter areas, as I did on the background and in the feathers on Join the Crowd.

Join the Crowd

Watercolor

10" X 14" image

Framed in Brushed Silver Frame

$425

Available at HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

Poinsettia Tree WIP by April M Rimpo

Other times I apply paint and when it is mostly dry I spray it with water to remove the areas that are slightly wet leaving hard, yet organic, edges. You can see this in the leaves in the closeup of Poinsettia Tree, taken fairly early during the creation of this painting.  To see the completed painting click here.

The Apex by April M Rimpo

Drips are another favorite method of mine to create textures, as demonstrated in The Apex.  There is always a purpose when I use a texture since I feel the texture has to enhance the painting, not just be decorative.

Since I always an looking for new, interesting, and maybe faster ways to create textures I decided to take a mixed media class from Nancy Barch. First of all let me say that Nancy is a wonderful teacher, full of great ideas. The variety she uses in her work is fascinating. I knew from others who had taken her workshops how much she had inspired them to try new approaches in their art and I am so glad I took her workshop. 

Since I love the transparency of watercolor and fluid acrylic I was looking for techniques I could adopt and transform, as necessary, to enhance my work without being a major shift in style. 

Below are images of some of the work I produced in this workshop. You can see we used much thicker applications of paint on the first three pieces, but the variety of textures are magnificent.  My challenge over the next few months is to test methods to adopt Nancy's concepts and use them in a slightly more fluid manner to see if I can add more depth and nuance to my paintings.  I'm always striving to add visual interest and believe the new vocabulary of textures from Nancy's workshop will do the trick.

 

Abstract Flowers;  White on White;  7th & Carroll;  Lunar Blue; Destruction