Bird Nest Mixed Media Painting

I love spring, I love birdcages, bird nests, and blue eggs.  When I started to put out some of my spring decor I new I wanted to do a painting of a bird nest so I could have it on the fireplace.  I prepped this canvas with the old pages, distressed it, brayed it, and drew on the nest and just never got back to it.  Today I decided I would finish it before spring has come and gone so welcome to another one of my art classes.

 

I found this canvas at the Goodwill for $.99 and put a base coat of rust paint on it to cover up the print that was on there.  Then I got my vintage book out and started to rip up the pages and glue them down with Modge Podge.

When I completed that step I like to grunge things up a bit so I  used Distress Ink's walnut color and rub the pad over the top and spritz with some water to smear the ink around and then let it dry.

When it drys I will cover the entire canvas with more Modge Podge and let dry completely.  It will smear some but that is okay.

Then I used my brayer and two white tones in Folk Art paint to give the look of this texture. Then I will draw a rough sketch of the bird nest just to make sure I get the right size before I start painting.

I start with a dark brown to get the shape but don't fill it in completely.

I will use several different colors to achieve a combination I am satisfied with before I start on the eggs.  I pretty much have the nest completed before doing the eggs except for the final highlights.

I used two shades of robin's egg blue, first I started with the dark and then did the light.  I did this a couple of times until I got the look I was after.

Then to give it a final touch I added some swirls around the edge and used a toothbrush with dark brown paint to splatter on the eggs. 

When I had my pottery business ages ago this was my signature trade mark that was put on every piece, it just seems to complete it for me since I didn't add a branch.

Then I signed it  and put it on display.  I decided to use my first and middle name instead of my last name and I guess I am not sure why. I guess it just seems to roll of the tongue like Loretta Lynn does so that is why you see my watermark as Barbara Lynn. 

Another reason I started using a watermark on my photo pictures is because I would love to publish an art book one day and want to make sure that no one uses my art work.  It may never happen but I want to be on the safe side.  I was at another blog recently when she saw her pictures on another persons blog!!!  So that is when I decided to start. 

This is what it looks like on my fireplace.  I have a new camera and I am still getting used to it and I just couldn't get a good shot of the whole fireplace and so it is a partial.  The other two paintings were done by me, the one on the right is a Magnolia and this was the first time I tried to paint something realistic and it was done last summer with a friend from church in an outdoor class,  and the second one is a Poppy that I did on my own a few weeks after the magnolia painting.  I love the way they turned out but I find I am frustrated while painting them so I won't do two many of this style but I do enjoy these two.  Well, I hope you enjoyed this art class I am so glad you stopped by and I hope you will try to do a bird nest yourself and put it on display for this spring.

xo

barb