Mother and Daughter in the Wind – A Tree Painting

Here is a painting that I finished recently.  I was thinking of my daughter and that Mother’s Day will be here soon.

Mother and Daughter in the Wind painting by Janell Mithani

Mother and Daughter in the Wind, 8″ x 10″, Acrylic on canvas

I love trees and how they blow in the wind and how leaves sometimes just blow off in a group from a tree in a wind gust.  I have been thinking of this painting for a while…how trees and people connect and how things in nature become representational of emotions we feel for each other.  I have a feeling this is going to turn into a series as I am itching to do another one already. 🙂

I have been working on a new website dedicated to just my paintings.  It is coming together and it is almost finished.  I am so excited about it!  I will post a link when I get it done.

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

A Visit to a Ghost Town

Last week we checked out this little ghost town in Southern California.  I had fun taking pictures and just fell in love with the little slumped shack… I think it will be appearing in one of my paintings soon.

Slumped Shack

Wagon seat, I just love the texture and faded color of the old wood.

Wagon seat, I just love the texture and faded color of the old wood.

A view of the valley below

A view of the valley below.

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Loved the shape of this tree. It was situated in the middle of town.

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I just walked around a corner and these were leaning against the wall by the jail. I just loved the composition and the shadows.

I just walked around a corner and these were leaning against the wall by the jail. I just loved their juxtaposed position and the shadows.

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

Mixing and Building Texture with Acrylics and Molding Paste on Canvas

This painting was a really fun experimental piece.  I thought I would share my creative process since it was a little different from my acrylic painting on canvas.

mixed media painting by Janell mithani

I had picked up some Golden acrylic mediums a while back and I have used the Coarse Molding Paste for a couple of image transfers, but I have been wanting to experiment with adding it to an acrylic painting to build up some textures and shapes.  For the first layer,  I mixed my acrylic paints with some Golden Acrylic fiber paste and coarse molding paste which created a thick textured paint that I applied to the canvas and then let dry.  Then I painted the background over it.  I painted the flowers adding in some medium in some areas to thicken the paint and add even more texture.

Tools and Supplies

Tools and supplies… and my very messy art desk.

These are the supplies and tools I used as well as acrylic paints and brushes.  I went tool shopping in my kitchen drawer and found some useful items.  I finally got to use that Pampered Chef scraper!  They are now designated studio tools.  They were just using up space in my kitchen anyhow. 🙂

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About 1/2 way through the painting I decided to add some more texture by applying the Golden Coarse Molding Paste to a stencil.  I applied the molding paste without any paint to the stencil.  I used  my palette knife and a plastic knife to apply the paste to the canvas.

Applying medium to stencil

Applying medium (generously) over stencil.

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The plastic knife created an interesting lined texture.

Once I had a lot of medium over the stencil I used my Pampered Chef squeegee (not sure what it is actually called) from my kitchen to get a smooth surface.

Smoothing out the medium.

Smoothing out the medium.

Then I lifted the stencil off. I cleaned the stencil with the squeegee and put the excess paint back into the jar.  (Don’t waste any of it!)  I finished cleaning the stencil with a wet paper towel and then hung it on my window with painters tape to dry so I can re-use the stencil for other projects.

Don't waste any!

I also used a portion of a stencil to write the word forever.  The triple picture below shows the stencil, the dried paste and then a detail of the finished painting with paint over the top.

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I also applied some of the Acrylic Coarse Medium over the paint in some areas as well as mixed it with the paint to add more texture to the flowers as I painted in more details.

Golden Medium over painted canvas

Golden molding paste over painted canvas.

More texture added to the flowers with Golden Coarse Molding Paste added to my acrylics

More texture added to the flowers with Golden Coarse Molding Paste added to the acrylic paint.

Another stencil application in the lower left corner of the canvas. Once I lifted off the stencil, I went in and added more lines with my palette knife while the paste was still wet.

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Here is the final painting again.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my creative process.

mixed media painting by Janell mithani

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

Bunny Chairs for Spring!

It’s bunny season!  I just love bunnies, I have lots of bunny statues around my garden.

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I painted a bunny chair for my daughter for Easter when she was a little girl.  My dad cut out the wood piece as well as two more chairs for me when so many people loved her chair. Well… 11 years later (I looked at the postmark on the box he mailed) and I am finally getting time to put the additional two together and paint them.  It took me about 3 days to paint, assemble and then paint the details of their faces and ears.  I made each one a little different.

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Detail of second bunny chair face.

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They were so fun to paint.

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I decided to crochet a little cushion for each of them.   They are available at Belle’s Nest, 55 N. Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre or just contact me if you are interested.  The are $139 each.

Here are a few pictures of my process…

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Beautiful wood!

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Painted two coats…

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All ready for their faces and personality!

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The original chair I made for my daughter.  He is still sitting in a corner of her room.

Have a wonderful creative day, Janell

New Manga Style Character “Midnight”

Midnight

Midnight

Occasionally a name for a character will just come to me as I am working on a piece.  This was one of those times.  I thought Midnight was the perfect name for my new character.  She reminds me of the night  and celebrates the color blue.  Many times the name of a character or title of a piece of art is a challenging process for me.  Sometimes I have two names I really like and can’t decide between the two.  I do favor one word titles.   My husband titles some of my pieces and always just nails it… like he read my mind when I didn’t know what I was thinking.  HA!

What is your creative process for naming or titling your art?

A Painting for My Husband…

I painted this beach scene for my Husband for Christmas.  BeachSceneSmallLogo

I finished it on Christmas Eve, just in time to pop it into a frame I had in the studio.  He has always loved the “Woody” car with a surf board on the top.  We have a lot of fun spotting them when we are hanging out at the beach.

I think this is the first time I have ever drawn and painted a car.  I finally put the hanging hardware on the back of it this weekend so he can hang it up in his office.

Here are a couple pictures of the progress of the painting.

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I am just beginning to get the palm trees sketched and painted in..

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This is the painting of the beach, I just need to add the car.

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With the car sketched in…  I did a pretty detailed drawing in pencil on paper and then did the old-fashioned transfer of scribbling on the back of the paper with charcoal and tracing over my sketch to transfer the line drawing into my painting.  It works great, I also sometimes use white charcoal or soft pastel if I am transferring onto a darker painted surface.  If you mess up you can just brush it off with a paper towel.  Also, if you don’t want charcoal all over the back of your sketch, you can take a photo copy of your sketch and use the copy for your transfer.  I use this process a lot when I want to “Ink” one of my Manga drawings, too.

Wish you a wonderful creative day, Janell