Mixed-Media Painting: Lavender and Blossoms

I've had some ideas for paintings like this swimming around in my head for a while, and for some reason I haven't made one until now.  But when I've thought of doing such paintings, the color purple or lavender was definitely NOT on my mind.

 I wanted to make something for the final week of Louise Gale's Creative Color Challenge, but I was intimidated when I learned that the color was lavender.  I love lavender plants, I think they are beautiful and smell fantastic,  but it is not a color that I normally use in my artwork.  I guess that's why it's called a challenge : )

I started by plastering the top 2/3's of a 6 1/4" x 11 1/4" wood board with Golden' light molding paste, using an old credit card as my "trowel".   I used the same technique to smear Golden's crackle paste (love!) to the bottom 1/3.  While still wet I drew the design into it with a pencil, and used the credit card to create the straight lines.

When dry I painted the lavender background.  Originally this piece was only going to be lavender and white, but I remembered that for this week's challenge we could add any of the past challenge colors, so I added a soft sea green and some raspberry red.

On the bottom right corner I added a small square of silver leaf torn from a Japanese washi paper.  Once it dried overnight, I sealed it with a matt sealer and then antiqued it lightly with a raw umber glaze.  I did this to bring out the cracks and grooves a bit more, and make the colors not quite as "bubble gum".  The camera (or photographer ;) ), was having trouble capturing the true colors, but this is close enough.  They are a bit more "dirty" in person.

So what I thought was going to be a project that I would want to give to the nearest passerby once done, ended up being one of my favorites!  Now I love the color lavender and am already planning on using it in more of my work.  Thank you Louise for that!  What I realize is that I could probably use any color in my work, as long as I learn how to make it "Esther".

 I also am realizing that plaster or molding paste is one of my favorite things to use.  I've used it many times like on this piece here, and on my sister's 3 other pieces (which I still have to share with you), and I really feel like that's the way my artwork is going to keep heading.  I had a blast creating this piece and want to make many more like it.  And using plaster takes me back to my favorite finishes from my faux-finishing days, so whenever I miss it, I could just whip out a very large canvas and get plastering!