Medium

"Summer Yellow" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This pretty sunflower and its five friends currently reside on my work table, thanks to my wonderful husband. Usually I paint from printouts or my monitor, but this one was painted from life thanks to the impending demise of my computer.  Poor thing has been overheating and locking up every few minutes and generally making my life miserable. Tomorrow I’ll send it over the electronic rainbow bridge and set up its replacement. Then I can finally get some work done!

"Dusk on the Midway" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Dusk is my favorite time to photograph the midway. As blue skies deepen, the lights begin to sparkle. The hot, humid day gives way to cooling breezes, and the grandstand pulses to the beat of an American Idol. There’s a little extra excitement in the air. We’re going to have some fun tonight!

This is my first experience using Ampersand Aquabord. (Not a misspelling. Ampersand calls all their boards “‘bord.”) As the name implies, this surface designed for water media. I picked up some on sale, thinking if I hated it I could always use it to mount prints or paper. But I liked it. With some more experience, I think I could do some cool things on this surface. The gesso is absorbent, like paper, so I used that to my advantage for the initial soft washes (first image, below). When the background was dry, I sealed it with binder medium so the “bord” wouldn’t be quite so absorbent as I painted subsequent layers. I’m not ready to give up my beloved Gessobord, but it’s nice to have options.

Some paintings gradually come into focus as elements are layered into the scene. This is one of them. I’ve watched this carnival being built from the asphalt up, and I’ve painted it in much the same way. Here are a few images I saved along the way:

"Stripes, and Stars" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 8". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Every year I pass this colorful little tent at my state fair, and have the same “gotta paint this” reaction. So I photograph it, and file it away. This 4th of July weekend seemed like the perfect time to finally get it done.

I’m experimenting here in painting on a metallic gold-toned surface. I was reluctant to cover up all that pretty gold! Also trying out my new favorite blue, indanthrene blue, in the sky. Here are a few images from along the way:

"Crinkle Fries" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Here’s another painting of something I can’t eat. I loved these things when I still ate white potatoes.

These days I have a new love – sweet potato fries! OMG, they are so good! Much tastier than white potato fries, and they barely raise my blood sugar. I serve them with a garlicky dipping sauce made with Greek yogurt. Yum!

A few images from along the way:

"Caramel Apple, No Nuts" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5" x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Ten years ago this week, I gave up sugar forever. So I’ll celebrate by painting apples covered in caramelized sugar. I used to love these things! Ate a lot of them as a kid growing up next to a ten acre apple orchard. My mom would melt Kraft caramels in a double boiler with a little cream, then dip the crisp fresh apples in it. Yum! The taste of Autumn. No nuts for me, though.

Here are a few images captured along the way:

"Voyeur" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 8". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This piece was created for the Daily Paintworks Balance Challenge hosted by Cathleen Rehfeld. Here are Cathleen’s guidelines for the challenge:

The challenge is to create a stack of something that is balanced, in many ways. Literally balancing things on top of other things, and balance in color, color compliments, neutrals and bright color, composition, negative/positive space, and then paint it!

I think I strained my mind thinking too much! But it was fun to shop for fruits with character, then slice, stack, and photograph them. It reminded me of product photography in school.