Mother and Baby - Mixed Media Painting

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
– e. e. cummings

 My mother gave me a beautiful framed quote of this.  I have always loved that quote!

 

Mother and Child – 6″ x 8″ Mixed Media Painting

This was inspired by so many things.  First of all, the background paper was from my unused paper stash.  It was prepared by wetting the paper, dropping watercolor onto it and the covering it with crinkled up grocery sacks until it dried.  I did that months ago.



Then I found some transparent wrapping tissue paper with glitter on it, in another stash.  I attached it to the watercolor paper, using Mod Podge, and let it dry overnight.

This part was inspired by what I have seen Leslie White do with masa paper.

The next inspiration came from Elizabeth’s (edtree at WetCanvas) photo of her niece and child.  Elizabeth challenged us to do some negative painting, so that’s what I did.  I paid special attention to the interlocking fingers.



I was sure the mother did that before she fell asleep, to keep her baby safe.

I painted this with watercolor and a little white gouache for highlights on the skin.

I had a great time doing this while listening to some old Big Band music. 




Click on any photo to see it larger.

About e. e. cummings

The writer who became known as e. e. cummings was an experimental poet whose idiosyncratic typography complements the music of his poetry; he published more than 900 poems, two novels, and four plays. He was also an accomplished painter. He was born in Massachusetts in 1894 and entered the ambulance corps in World War I but ended up in a detention camp after expressing his pacifist views. He died in 1962. His most famous poem was “In Just-”.