In my Japanese Garden

My art style has always been rather"tight", and I was feeling a bit like a photocopy machine. So this year I decided I was going to let myself be more "intuative"...loosen up like. I have found that the medium I choose dictates the "looseness" of my work.

So this piece started as a sponged acrylic background. To add interest I glued some butterflies onto it(and a flower that was laying around)...
I painted over all these with a soft blue...and my Japanese lady came to tend the flowers...
a layer of watercolour and pencil...but she looked a bit "forced".
Sealed the lot under a layer of clear gesso...
then softened the whole piece with white acrylic and a rag...
and then the inks, straight from the bottle dropper(I used the little Tim Holtz distress alcohol inks).
I love drawing with the inks like this! You can't have tight lines, they won't let you! I think it's what is described as an "impressionist" type effect, no solid line, just the impression of flowers and a figure(though I did define the face a teeny bit with a brown pencil)

Suppose I should have called her "Madame Butterfly" :D

Enjoy :D XXX