Mixed Media Canvas Painting – Combining Art Inspiration

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Hearts of Therapy Captured in Paint

Prehistoric men painted animals for many reasons. Is it so strange that present day Artists are serious about capturing animals in their artwork? Painting different species seems to be an inherited trait for some and Laura Barbosa is no exception.

What does this have to do with “Hearts of Therapy”? Everything… if we take the time to see what is going on right in front of our eyes we would notice that our beloved dogs are more than just primitive canines and capable guards. They are therapy dogs with a heart whom are doing great work in our local community and have been featured in 3 giant paintings which are gaining much popularity and raising awareness for a local community concerned with health and healing.

In 2007 Laura Barbosa had been previously published in an article written by Zach Patberg in the Asbury Park Press of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in NJ entitled: “Art Of The Dog”

Ms. Barbosa has been working on 3-24″high x 48″wide acrylic paintings on canvas featuring 12 life size working therapy dogs of various breeds that currently work in our local community hospitals, nursing homes, psychiatric facilities, schools and other locations in Ocean County NJ where emotional service dogs are indispensable.

“I hope to help the patients heal through my artworks! The dogs in this painting are well known in our local facilities and visit the very patients who will be viewing the originals and whom love the dogs dearly and count on them to boost their moral, help them heal and lower their blood pressure.”

Laura’s idea was to present a local facility with these works of art in hopes of raising money for The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, Inc. The Community Medical Center in Toms River NJ was chosen by the Artist because they totally support the use of Therapy Dogs in their Hospice, Oncology, Pediatric and Out Patient Programs. As of February 28, 2008 The Community Medical Center purchased the three works of art. The permanent display will begin March 2008.

“The idea was to create Beautiful Uplifting Artworks for the hospital and to increase public awareness to help diminish the existing breed specific stereotypes. The original paintings are priced at $2500 each and donations will be sent to The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dog organization to help keep these special canines in our facilities!.”

In conclusion, most will be surprised to see what types of dogs are included in these paintings! The most scrutinized and misunderstood are among the breeds on display. These paintings are more than just beautiful artwork, they make an important statement and are meant to educate the public and try to eliminate stereotypical prejudices against certain breeds of dogs in our society.The Art of Laura Barbosa Website

How to create a harbour town canvas painting

I would like to share with all painting enthusiasts the secrets into painting a piece of stunning original canvas art with a harbour theme, using acrylic paints. Living in Cornwall, England has its fair share of harbour towns; a particular one which I will use as my subject of matter is the art capital of England, St Ives which I’m sure most of you are pretty familiar with.

Ok I’ve decided I want to use a fairly large canvas so I’m working with a 20 x 30 inch stretched canvas over wooden frame supports. However if this is your first attempt choose a smaller canvas to start with. First of all, if you’re working from a photograph; to get an idea of the background colour in your painting, paint the sky from the top of the canvas working your way to the centre of the canvas, which will become your horizon. I’m adding sand tones in my picture as if the tide has gone out, so start with a buff white colour working across again and blend it with a touch of titanium white before using neat pthalo blue for the bottom part of your canvas. So your base colour will be starting from the top with powder blue mixed with titanium white working to a lighter horizon, buff white mixed with a touch of titanium white and then blend with neat pthalo blue all the way down to the bottom of the canvas. Allow to dry.

The second part of the painting can be quiet time consuming so get a cup of coffee and a biscuit, put on you’re your favourite music and begin.

Base Colour & Drawing

Start with a lighter pencil and make sure you have a good piece of rubber nearside. I work to a scale that’s about 95% accurate and find that using a ruler helps to. Draw out the main parts of the harbour working from the harbour wall, towards the town and upwards. If you’re painting your harbour from a straight angle this should be relatively easy. Back to the scale issue, you need to make sure that your buildings and background scale to the rest of your painting and the size of your canvas. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate at the end of the day it’s your creation. Outline all the angles of the roofs, chimney pots, arches, rocks, trees as much as you can see in your subject as this will make painting relatively easier later on.

Painting

Ok now we have all the outlines sorted lets get cracking with adding some basic colour. Harbour towns have a lot of white boat style houses with small round windows and white washed wood exteriors. So start highlighting all the lighter parts of your harbour town. Decide where your light source is coming from and work from there. You can use neat titanium white for this part. Add a little black paint, just a touch to the white and begin shading in the darker sides of the buildings where some of the walls are not in direct contact with your light source. The roofs of houses can be shaded in raw umber with a touch of yellow ochre and titanium white. Again start with the roof sides facing the light source with a lighter shade, and then darken for the opposite facing roofs. Not all your buildings are going to be white with dark shadows. There might be building in a shade of terracotta or flesh tint even. These can be done using exactly the same principal as described above.

Detail

Once you’re completely satisfied with the shading and the lighting of your harbour canvas art you can then start adding the details such as small arches, windows, doorways, waterlines, people and perhaps a few boats.

Tips

Always start with medium strength colours when shading in your buildings. When adding details such as windows and doors use a small flat brush with square cut bristles. Acrylic paints are fast drying so where possible use an acrylic retardant gel which slows the drying process of acrylic paintings allowing for further, smoother blending capabilities. For rapid drying time on parts of your canvas painting make use of a hair dryer. Once you feel confident enough, you can try creating a variety of canvas paintings using different angles or even subjects.