365 Day 263

another Experimental Art Night with Shaqe Kalaj

Whoa -- that was a F*U*N Experimental Art Night at Art & Ideas Gallery in Plymouth with Shaqe Kalaj.

If you know me, you know how much I dislike ANYthing to do with acrylic paint and painting.
This was pretty cool, though, and I am sure a lot of it will carry over to other projects.

We had to choose one of the shapes on the table that Shaqe made for us, then mix six little pots of paint for ourselves only using red, white and blue.




These are the shapes we had to choose from.

There were four of us tonight and I wanted the others to pick first. You know I wanted that black arrow one.






Yay -- it was one of the two that were left!

Shaqe said she had me in mind when she was making it.

At first glance it looked to me like a weather vane, then an ornate hand of a clock...then what it turned out to be.





It was cool -- the paint was in big pump bottles like ketchup and mustard at a serve yourself place.
















These are the colors I mixed up...I couldn't figure out how to make the paint get darker...I really wanted a dark, dark, blackish purple color.


We were also allowed to use plain white that was on the table and we were allowed to use the paint we mixed and mix new colors on the little palette/tray.









With the shapes, we were to draw whatever we felt like, using as much or as little of the shape as we wanted. We could freehand draw, use a part of the shape, expand the shape, trace the shape -- do whatever we were inspired to do.


I traced my shape's outline first.




Then I added parts to it, repeated parts, etc. I freehanded the bird's head and the ball.












Then we had to paint the picture.

I needed more colors, so I mixed tiny amounts with the brush and kept trying to get it darker, but it wouldn't. It just changed the purple-ness.














One of the last purples I mixed up on the tray.














Taa-daa...my finished piece.

It is a long-legged bird with a colorful tail balancing on a ball. He's got a circus act and he is just coming offstage by rolling the ball forward. That is a set of sheer curtains he is rolling through. I think this guy is probably really, really tall.












detail of the face










detail of the tail --

I was trying to make each section a slightly different color, hoping it would look a little like the feathers were in front of each other.

I would've outlined each one with the dark dark purple if I'd had it. I could probably still do that or use black at home.





detail of the body











Shaqe showing one of the other pictures and the shape...the shape is dark green underneath the picture.











Here is another one...the shape is dark blue.













Here is another one and her shape.










And there is mine with the black shape.










You KNOW I would never ever try and mix colors at home on my own, let alone sit down and play with paint...but I will do it at Experimental Art Night with Shaqe Kalaj! And now I feel just a little bit more confident about trying it on my own. I am sure this will come in handy somewhere down the road...