Progress on Montana de Oro Piece

I'm back! We took a trip to Ohio at towards the end of July to visit family, and we've spent a couple of weekends in Springville, California with my parents. I did some glass work on those visits (I'll share that work later). But now I'm back home and back in the studio - er, garage and dining room table.

I made some progress with my Montana de Oro painting. Here's where I left it before I left for Ohio.

I wasn't happy with how the area around the anemone turned out. I decided to try to block out the anemone with contact paper and do another pour around it. Here it is with the contact paper cut out.

The contact paper is extra shiny. I painted over the edge of the contact paper with acrylic gloss medium a couple times to seal the edges. Then I mixed a few different colors and poured them over the piece. Here are some pictures of the pour as it's drying.

I've been experimenting with my pours in this piece. Usually I think my paints down with water, or water mixed with acrylic flow release. In this piece I've used acrylic pouring medium. The pouring medium keeps some body to the paint. The end result is a layer of acrylic instead of the stain painting I usually do. The colors typically stay more vibrant. It also captures the way the colors flow together.

I'm excited to see how this one turns out. Unfortunately it won't be dry until at least tomorrow. Then I get to peel up the contact paper. Hopefully the paint didn't leak underneath.