Breaking A Heart.... On Wood

'Broken Heart'

Mixed Media on Wood 2x2

by Tatiana Kuzyk

Let me first begin by saying that I unintentionally re~published one of my older posts while trying to make a quick change to it.... turns out there's only two options that a Blogger offers in such cases 'Save as a Draft' or 'Publish the Post'... I think you're getting the picture. From now on, I'll try to leave all my old posts alone.

The second item I wanted to share is my last Friday visit to a C.G. Jung Institute in Evanston, IL for a movie viewing and discussion of a recently published for the very first time Jung's 'Red Book.' A very long story short, I had a chance to peruse through the Institute's copy of the book featuring original size mandala paintings by Jung.... amazing, stunning, and humbling ~ comes close in describing my first reactions to seeing Jung's magnus opus up close. I mention this event here, because I want to encourage you to visit the following link which opens a mandala-making site at the Rubin's Museum in NY where Jung's original Red Book is currently on display. I've been having so much fun making different mandalas and then printing them right off my screen.... here it is: http://explore-mandala.rma2.org/

Finally, I'd love to share photos depicting my latest painting's journey from the beginning ~ in other words, see how you can break a heart and enjoy the process, too....

I begun by spreading the usual two layers of acrylic gesso over a 2x2 plank of wood.

In the next step I applied one, generous coat of Golden Acrylics Absorbent Ground as I wanted to experiment with acrylic paints while creating a waterColors~like effect and transparency.

As you can see in the above photo the first layer of background has washy, somewhat translucent feel. In order to create an uneven pigment distribution I kept my brush thoroughly soaked with water while applying the following colors all Liquid Acrylics by Golden: Cobalt Turquoise, Turquoise (Phthalo), and Paynes Gray and later I added a thin layer of Green Gold and my All~Time favorite Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold.

Thanks to the initial application of an Absorben Ground the acrylic paint continued to exhibit waterColor characteristic which I wanted to put to a further experimentation. I used a wet Q-tip to create a pattern by remowing the paint layers all the way to the surface of the absorben ground. It is very easy and fun to remove acrylics this way as the paint gives into the water contact in the exactly same manner as the water colors do. I also made numerous splashes of water using an dropper for an added variation in texture.

I couldn't help myself but to call upon Polymer Medium (Gloss) mixed with Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine) and to made some irregular wav~y, criculR shapes around the previously created shapes on the right side of the painting.

... more splashes greet my eagerly~absorbent background... this time a Red India Ink which later followed by its Gold counterpart.

After manipulating the surface a bit and letting the ink move in different directions before becoming completely absorbed by the ground I added few drops of Golden Acrylics Flow Release to do none other than.... to re~lease the flow of the ink.

Next, with 'a little help from my friend' hair dryer the flow started to release while making interesting marks~patterns across the surface.

Before the ink splatters dried completely I spreaded additional paint colors throughout the surface while keeping the very right side of the painting alone for the time being. I used three colors of paint: Paynes Gray, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, and Turquois (Phthalo) and inter~mixed them with a palette knife for a bit more uniform effect.

As you can see the lightly wet ink patterns were included in this fun colors interPlay...

While the surface was gently resting and drying I used the Red India Ink and 'drew' a heart outline directly with the ink applicator as I wanted to let the colors to.... well, bleed a bit into the underlying, drying paint and find its final, irregular shape.

Unfortunately, both the above and below, photograph doesn't give the true color value of the Golden Acrylics High Solid Gel and paint mixture (Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and a bit of Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine)). In this step I applied this thick, heavy mixture to cover all four circular shapes on the right side and....

.... also the interior of the heart shape at the center. Once finished, I placed my drying painting directly by the heating vent because.... well, I still have difficulties with following instructions and precautions at times. In this instance working with any Acrylic Gels or Mediums requires letting the freshly applied product to dry in the room temperature and any force~drying is strongly discouraged. However,..... if 'shooting' for some damage in the film/texture is your objective, then force~drying may be a way to go... with my painting I felt that force~drying will get the heart broken into many, many irregular pieces. FAST. And it did. I really like the final effect...

I used force~drying only with the heart shape and left the circles to dry at its natural pace. Then I set out to fill in the previously polymer~painted shapes with color while blending all elements into one cohesive whole with the circles. My first layer used a light application of Liquid Acrylics White Buff then followed by a Heavy Body Quinacridone Magent for a stron underlying color value. The subsequent paint layers included Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Transparent Red Iron Oxide.

For the heart I followed the same paint color application procedure as the one described above and below...

The final touches to the two main elements of my painting were aiming at developing further and accentuating textural variations. Hence, I used a small, plastic palette knife to apply numerous light deposits of the following Liquid Acrylics' colors: Golden Green, Van Dyke Brown Hue, and Iridescent Bright Gold (Fine).

Lastly I applied a coat of Golden Green paint to the entire background and I finished my painting with a thin layer of Golden Self-Leveling Gel in order to add a bit more lustre and seal off the absorbent layers before proceeding with a coat of Golden Acrylics Polymer Varnish w/UVLS (Satin).