Introducing Picture Stories
The journey of honing the gift of painting
A little introduction
Hi, I’m Susan and I’d like to share a little with you about my painting. I started painting in Jr. high and High school and tested several different methods.
For over 10 years, my sister-in-law, her daughter, and I attended a three-day summer painting class at my former workplace, Gullbrannagården.
Before then I had dabbled in oil painting after taking a class for adults. After testing acrylics, I soon found that I enjoyed them better as they are water-soluble and easy to clean without strong chemicals. Also, you can make it look like oil with more paint and less water, or like watercolors by using more water.
It is a flexible medium that dries quickly, allowing you to work faster and layer colors without risking bleeding or mixing. If you need the paint to dry slower you can add a Gel Medium (matte or glossy). The gel lengthens the drying time of the paint as well as making the texture more liquid and thinning the paint.
Video Introduction
In the video below I talk freely about my early attempt at painting with acrylic paint. I have written in more detail, the thoughts I speak of, in the text below.
Just a parenthesis: Although I am American I have done most of my painting in Sweden. I have learned the painting terms in Swedish and have difficulties finding the right words in English. The word ‘canvas’ escapes me often among other words. I leave my language mistakes in just for the fun of it. It might give someone a laugh who can understand the difficulties of being bilingual.
Read about Apple Bloom on Black
I painted this painting around 2009. It was one of the first paintings I had done with acrylic paint.
Spring is upon us! When I decided to share this painting with you I found that I hadn’t signed it or written the year on it so it must be one of my earliest. Dating and signing my paintings is something I always do now. After painting several paintings, it is difficult to remember when I painted what. I didn’t think of that when I first started.
Why a black background?
This painting is of apple blossoms. As you can see, the background is very dark. The reason is that I painted over a painting I wasn’t satisfied with. All I remember is that it was a sunset similar to the one below but with a lot of pink. I wish now that I had taken a photo of my rendition, especially since the original was in a book I had loaned. It is not my normal practice to destroy the work that I don’t like.
There is always something I can learn from them, but this one just made me sad every time I looked at it.
I had high hopes for the sunset motive when I started painting. It was in a book with step-by-step descriptions on how to use oil paints. Unfortunately, I didn’t consider that acrylic dries so much faster that you can’t do the blending the same way as with oil. It made my rendition look like a poorly done paint-by-number.
I decided to reuse the canvas by painting black over the original. As I had already sprayed the painting with varnish, the paint didn’t cover evenly. At first, I was disappointed, but then I realized that it only added depth to the background, and was pleased with the result.
Excuses, excuses
Another reflection: I mentioned on the video that the canvas had a glossy surface making it difficult to paint the way I wanted to. Glossy can be great for what I had attempted and failed at, the sunset meant for oil paints, but it was the varnish that was the problem at this stage.
After the black background dried, I was able to paint the apple blooms without problem as the varnish was covered and the new layer of paint stuck.
Is Black a Spring Color?
The original picture from a calendar that I used for my painting.
When you look at paintings of spring you don’t usually think of black backgrounds but I felt that the black made the apple blossoms pop. That is what life can be like too.
Sometimes our lives seem dark with our situations and the thoughts in our heads.
Especially this last year of 2020 – 2021 with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The darkness makes life difficult. I have struggled and I know many people who have as well. But darkness can also make the positive things that happen, sunshine, meeting up with a friend, or getting a letter, anything positive that happens, stand out.
It becomes stronger than darkness because light is stronger than dark.
Jesus is the Light
Jesus is light, God is light, and He always overcomes. He overcomes the darkness in our lives. Greater yet is that He overcomes the darkness in our world, even if we don’t always see it. Because even though His kingdom is already here in the Church, we know that His kingdom is still coming. He has already won the battle and this will be made known to all when He comes again to take us to His kingdom on high.
Because Christ has already won the battle, darkness can not rule, as light has already won. Light can always cover darkness. As soon as there is the slightest bit of light, darkness is gone. Because Christ is our light.
This is something I need to remember and by sharing it with you, I remind myself as well. If there is something in life that you are not satisfied with, it can be painted over. It can be remade and redone and it can be so much better.
God bless you.
Sharing Picture Stories
I plan on sharing my paintings and a little story of each here on my website. I hope that somehow, I can inspire you to use the gifts God has given you to spread joy and the knowledge of our Lord, giving others a desire to seek a deeper personal relationship with Him.
Keep in touch
You can also follow me on Social Media. I am most active on Facebook and Instagram.
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