Trying a Triad Competition

I'm a member of the Lafayette Art Association and our latest juried competition is titled "Trying a Triad" using 3 colors or shapes to create your artwork. I was not going to participate in the competition and was making one excuse after another but at the same time debating with myself because I felt I really should participate.

A couple of nights ago I had a bad night waking with stuffy sinuses then unable to sleep, so I got out of bed and was up most of the night piddling around my house. I crawled back into bed just as dawn arrived and slept most of the morning, which I never do. I woke feeling very rested but with this competition thing still on my mind. I've been dabbling in collage and mixed media lately with my "Fashion Diva" series and have been painting a "Bird Series" in oils. I decided to combine those techniques to create my entry.

I worked on bird sketches until I came up with something that would work using shapes (circles, squares and triangles). I decided on two 12 x 12 x 2" canvases. I first cut shapes from decorative paper for the bird parts in sizes to fit on the canvas (head/circle, neck/triangle, body/circle, tail/triangle, wing/triangle). I glued decorative paper on the canvas for the background, then roughed up the edges. After the glue dried I positioned my shapes on each canvas so that one bird was looking up and the other looking down then glued the body parts on.

I used acrylics for details on the birds, edges of the canvas and antiquing, thus producing this little whimsical pair I call "Pecking Order".

"Pecking Order #1"
(mixed media on 12 x 12 x 2" canvas)











"Pecking Order #2"
(mixed media on 12 x 12 x 2" canvas)