String-A-Ling Abstraction

Does anyone who visits my little art blog do abstracts? I've pinned more abstracts on Pinterest than any other type of painting. See my Pinterest boards here. Yes, I'm obsessed. ;) There's something about the ebb and flow of the paints with the abstract of shapes that 'might' be something, might not. They make you want to stare at them for a long time, trying to decider their hidden meanings.

I don't claim to be able to paint like anyone but I did try my hand at an abstract on the back of a cigar box lid. Why did I use a lid? Well, I have about 2700 cigar boxes and haven't used a one so I thought it was about time. Besides, it leaves me with a nice little shadow box to decorate. I even have a Pinterest board for that called 'Box it Up'. You knew I was going to say that, huh! Lol
As promised, here's the rest of the painting I showed a snippet of yesterday. I've posted the progression of the piece because the only thing I hate about seeing someone's beautiful abstract is, I wanna know how they did it! Lol

Here I dry painted on white paint, and then a bit of sea blue was put on with a palette knife. I did not sand the box lid first because, well, I was lazy. It adhered just fine.

I have these fluid acrylics I never use. I dripped the quinocronone red on the middle there and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. The blue 'triangles are dropped from India ink droppers.

Shiny red, can't remember the brand, paint was put on with a palette knife again. I fast doodled the pen marks that look like a vine on top. Used a sharpie. On the bottoms I pretended I was writing some fancy scrolly something using black India ink. I can't overthink everything or I'll get nowhere.

With Peony Pink paint I painted the line of circles across the written ink. Painted each little vine leaf with aqua and wrote around each pink circle and line with turquoise India ink. I was obsessed with inks this day.

Final touches, I made a stencil out of cardboard, big circles, and spray painted on the left side with hot pink. Using a Metallic crayon I drew on the pink circles again. I flicked white paint at the whole thing with a toothbrush and then poked some holes and stitched embroidery thread thru them in a loose pattern.

I like how it turned out. I belong to a group on Facebook, 'Art Exchange, Happy Mail Love' (I think you need to sign into Facebook to see this link) where you can sign up for swaps and trade stuff. This is my piece for Abstract Art. Hope my partner likes it. I'm thinking of doing a similar big canvas that will end up on Etsy. I'm going to give it a try!

Posted with Love from Contessa