This year I enrolled in an online mixed media class called Life Book.  This is the second project I created called “vessel full of tenderness”.  It was suggested that we choose a map to incorporate into the piece and “connect us” to it.  I thought about maps of my hometown (NYC) or even favorites cities I’ve visited, but ultimately decided on a map of my town – Fairfield, CT.

At first this project didn’t seem too difficult – just painting some flowers in a vase.  but once I began, I realized that there was much more to it than I thought.   I needed  acrylic paints, gloss medium, watercolor pencils,  gesso, and a map.  I used 12″x16″ watercolor paper for this project but I really could’ve used any paper.  The hardest parts of this project were 1) not using actual flowers as a model — the actual look of the flowers and vase came from my imagination, and 2) I was not “drawing” the flowers or vase with a pencil first.  I created the images using brush strokes from a wide range of brushes, layering the paint, adding the map and some gesso for dimension, and incorporating baby wipes to remove paint in spots (to reveal parts of the map).   It took many hours (there are 5 or 6 layers to this project) but I am very happy with my flower arrangement.