Currents of the Sea

 My first canvas made of this sort,

One of my loves as a child was water, swimming in it playing in it and after seeing the film "Splash" pretending to be a mermaid and loved playing at beaches, the feel of the sand under my feet, being buried in it and of course digging and building in it and with it the look of the ocean and it`s secrets and creatures. 

I started by glueing down palm fibers, mashing down and molding gauze as the sea bed. Glueing collected shells from the beach, flowers and sprinkling it all over with coarse white sand.  

After everything is gessoed over I always paint the background first with layers of watered down acrylic paints before adding the foreground details as it helps set the mood and color tones.

I built the mermaid bit by bit ..... 

...The hair fins and tail are made with ripped tissue brushed with a mixture of gesso and talcum powder then molded to the the desired shape. It hardens to a cement like texture. 

Sometimes tissue tends to form willingly on it`s own into lovely shapes...

                                         
                                     

I have previously entered this work at SATW and I am also entering this work here. 

http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.tw/2015/07/and-then-it-was-july.html

Hope you have enjoyed your peep here, thanks and have a great day.