New Project - Mixed Media Canvas

End of year project! I will make a Tree of Love.

I have another large canvas, 4 feet by 5, that I bought at a hotel liquidation sale, actually I got 3 for $20. I love to recycle, re-use and re-purpose. The canvas is in good shape, just a few rips and tears here and there, that will be covered by my mixed media stuff anyway. If you guys remember, I used one canvas almost a year ago, I made Mother Nature, large face with tree branches, flowers, leaves and butterflies.

Here is the canvas. Not blank, but it doesn’t matter, colors will change soon.

First step - create dimension by using texture paste and stencils. Free style, all over the canvas.

My theme is Tree of Love, so I imagine a man and a woman, hugging, as the trunk of a tree, and branches and leaves coming out of their bodies. I saw this theme in many art museums, so it is very popular. Besides all, Nature is our main source of inspiration. The outcome depends of each individual artist’s level of imagination and skills.

I first drew the two bodies on a large poster, to figure out how I will position them on my canvas, and then I drew with a marker directly on canvas. All I need is contours, because I will fill them out with beads. 😉 Curious???

Now the fun part begins! I am glueing the beads! I use glue gun and tube beads for the lower part of their bodies, the trunk of the tree. These tube beads are recycled from an old and broken bead curtain that I bought it for $3 in a thrift shop.