21/04/20 - Painting #16 (Day 2) and the Queen's birthday!

Today is the Queen's birthday. By all accounts she is celebrating just as many other people have had to in lockdown, at home with messages from family via WhatsApp, Zoom, etc. I thought this would be a lovely way to celebrate the Queen today, given the current enthusiasm for rainbows!

Progress today: I have painted the rest of the balls and the swirls which I am not overly happy with. I drew them into the design because there was a swirl shape on the Spirograph template and I thought it would be sweet to add something to reflect the support F gave me in creating this design. However, I don't particularly like the placing of these into the design, or the angle at which they sit. I have learnt throughout this project to allow mistakes to happen, not to dwell on them and to instead accept them as being a necessary step in the journey. So whether I like the swirls much or not, they are part of the design and will remain so.

I wanted to add a rainbow to the design as well, being as they are playing such a prominent part in lockdown life. Rather than go down the Kandinsky route of having an actual rainbow in the painting, I decided to paint one of the balls in rainbow stripes, quite a subtle nod I hope.

Whilst packing my things away from today's painting session I felt absolutely thrilled with what I'd created. I'm excited to tackle the background tomorrow because as much as I like the bold coloured balls on the white, I want to stick closer to the original inspiration which had a very rich, colourful background. I'm not too sure what colour palette I will go for or even what type of paint. I am never overly confident with deep, acrylics over large areas so I'm toying with the idea of watered down acrylic or even watercolour paint...it is such a risk to try anything when you really love the art as it stands already! I'm both excited and nervous about this one.

Today my yoga was a.m: Wake Up Yoga and Yoga Joy p.m: Fingers, Wrists and Hands.