'Chinook'

For the past few weeks I've been working on several paintings and though I had a rough idea which direction they were headed, I was taken by surprise in the end, especially with this one.  I've had Martha Stewart lace stencils that I picked up on sale last year and though I've been using them to add texture, it was nice to be able to utilize as stencils in this piece though instead of stippling them with paint, I selectively used their outlines. 

Initially when I painted the blocks of colour - pthalo blue, vivid lime green and turquoise - I wasn't happy with the result so I slept on it for a couple of days.  One morning I had a 'Eureka' moment and decided to use my acrylic paint markers to add pattern with stencils.  I decided that I would use several colours and if it didn't turn out, that was okay because I didn't like the background in any case...what could it hurt?  Well, I began with a white paint marker and liked it so much that I continued on, just laying the patterns almost wherever they tended to land.

I'm really pleased how this piece turned out and know that I will incorporate the pattern of stencils more often.  In fact, I think I may have to get some more.