Revisiting a Previous Painting to Create Something New

This is a painting I created live during my art exhibit opening titled Hands and Feet that I had last year in October at Awakenings Coffee House in Boise. I had titled the painting Look At The Ravens: You Count Far More. I created it to the live music of local musician Jake Nielsen. It was such a fun collaboration with him in that live moment for the audience to experience with us together. The painting has been sitting in my studio ever since and I haven't known what to do with it. I could sell it. I could give it away. Or...I could do something new with it. 

Today I chose to do something new with the painting. And so it took it's place on my easel ready to be transformed. Ready to collaborate with me and with God, with the paints and other mediums, with the brushes and other tools...to be a part of something bigger than itself. 

Here's a video of a paint layer being applied.

Here's another video of a paint layer being applied.

Here's one more video of a paint layer being applied.

Here are some detailed spots showing the layers and texture.

The addition of latex house paints and acrylic paints applied as a wash over the previous image begins to give the painting a new direction. 

Here's video of a paint layer being applied by palate knife.

The addition of latex house paints and acrylic paints applied with palate knives give some additional texture to the painting.

Video of me adding a charcoal layer.

The addition of graphite, charcoal, and chalk pastels gives the painting more action and the implied look of a sketch (a work in progress). 

Here are some detailed spots showing the layers and texture. 

Once I knew that the painting was nearing it's finish, I glued on a paper image that I had printed with matte medium (which protects the paper and ink so I can paint on top of it) and then continued adding paint and texture to integrate it into the painting. It's an image of my hand intertwined with the hands of some of my friends. I took a photo of us connected like this a few years ago and I wanted to utilize it in this painting as the representation of the theme.

Better Together

c. 2018 Lisa Marten

24x30 mixed media on canvas

(graphite, charcoal, chalk pastel, acrylic paint, latex house paint, paper, ink, matte medium)

This painting is all about we as individuals matter. Who we are is important and as we allow ourselves to be who we are meant to be we come to realize that we're also a part of something that is much bigger than ourselves. We're part of this big beautiful thing called humanity. We can accomplish so much more when we come alongside each other, when we work together, when we allow for collaboration, when we join in community, when we help each other out. We're actually allowing for ourselves to be the best that we can be...together.