acrylic – the starry-eyed mermaid

I have been searching for a studio space for the last four years, as I had to work in my living room and as a consequence, my sofa is covered in splatters of acrylic paint!! But now I have the luxury of a 3-metre wall to work on! I can splatter and splot to my heart’s content! The studio space is in a fab place called ‘Fountain Arts’ and is a little community of artists. There are 9 artists or crafters with spaces, and with them being open plan, it is great to chat to others. But when I am alone, I get out my bluetooth speaker, hook it up to my phone, put some happy music on and paint away to my hearts content! (I dance too, but shhhhhh!!)

I painted my first larger acrylic floral before Christmas and wow, what a liberating experience to be let loose with the acrylics and SPACE!!! I abandoned the reference pics and just went with the flow! I let my spirit free and worked intuitively, letting my soul make the creative decisions!

‘Fizzy Poppies’ evolved gradually over the space of a few weeks!

1st stage: I painted a weak wash with watered down acrylics. This provided the base layer for the rest of the work:

2nd Stage: I painted on a white background at first, defining the flowers and vase using negative space. I then added some yellow, and the green base. It looks a little patchy! That green is so intense!!

Stage 3: At this point, I had a total change of direction and was driven to use a palette knife to add red petals, which became poppies! I used a sharp pencil and scribbled all over the painting, gouging into the wet paint. My son joined in! It was great fun!! I could have tidied up the patchy background and this would have been a good artwork. But I got caught in the moment, and I needed lots of red and a sense of movement:

I made the vase edges less defined, then used a black oil pastel to define the poppies and add some shadows. I scribbled round and round each poppy with a pencil and the tip of a palette knife, which was unabashedly hedonistic! But I love the textures. Gold paint was scraped onto the canvas using a palette knife. OOooo I just LOVE palette knives!!! Such fun! I love big brushes, too!!

To add the final touches, I used thinned-down white acrylic and a brush for my very favourite part of my ‘artistry’! The SPLATTERS!!!!! Yay! I get really physical, hurling the paint across the painting! i do think it gives a sense of movement though.

Hey Presto….’Fizzy Poppies’ had emerged in a whirl of evolution!!

So there you have it!! The evolution of Fizzy Poppies! I am going to enter it into the Ferens Open Exhibition 2024 (the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull). Last year, my watercolour painting, ‘Cluckers’ was chosen for the exhibition. I used to visit the Ferens very often with Grandad Pett and never would have believed I would have work displayed in there. Honoured and privileged!

You can find me on Instagram: @sarahdruryart and on Facebook: Sarah Drury Art. And I can be contacted though the contact page on this website.

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