Bad Painting #12 : The Cabbage Flower

Here we are at Bad Painting #12 !!!

I may be going slow but I love what I am making 🥰 🐞🔥🌿

These garden paintings are making me soo freaking happy… the colour, the process, the characters, the plants, the dogs!

Let’s start with the paint.

Thick creamy, heavy body acrylic that goes on like butter. Sometimes I water it down and scratch it around with hog’s hair brushes.

The scratchy brushes is one of my favourite parts and it happens at the very beginning. Big swirly scratchy paint mess. And this sets the tone. This is what helps me to put aside my fears and dive in.

The Process.

I do a lot of swatching and I make colour decisions early on. I build the shapes up layer by layer and once the painting really starts to come together, I can just let go and work intuitively.

It’s such an interesting balance between planning and intuition.

I do some basic research. I have a few garden books here in my studio that I use for inspiration and shapes. I deliberately try to stay away from too much research or pictorial reference because I don’t want it to be stiff.

Soon the painting starts to take on a life of it’s own and it’s MAXIMAL.

I’m not holding back with the colour, the lithe belongs to the characters I have created, the lady and her dog.

My dream garden.

If I’m being perfectly honest, I would love to be this lady, with her sweet little dog! I can totally picture myself in this dreamy garden every morning and evening… planting, weeding, watering and Painting!

Erin’s 100 Bad Paintings .

Erin’s 100 Bad Paintings is a project I created when I started treatment for Breast Cancer. It’s a way for me to let go of any pressure and just immerse myself in the flow of doing what I love. You can read more about the project here.