"Ocean Sunset"
Alcohol ink painted on a 10" dinner plate
- by Cindy Mott McGarry
Alcohol ink painted on a 4"x4" tile/coaster
-by Cindy Mott McGarry
"You can't depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain
Attending an alcohol ink class a week ago was a wonderful experience in free flowing thinking and painting. It was a blast! The demonstration given by the teacher was so quick and easy to understand. This was the opposite experience I had imagined having because I thought it would be much more involved and complicated.
All you really need is a small cup holding isopropyl alcohol, a small paint brush, some alcohol inks in basic colors, paper towels, a small tile for a palette and a finished tile or canvas as a painting surface. A few drops of ink go a long way. Dipping the brush into the isopropyl alcohol and just dabbing a few drops onto a small painted shape of ink color thins and expands in ways all its own. As if you are partnering with another artist. 😃😃
It didn't take long at all to get comfortable with putting down basic shapes of color and allowing the mediums to create their own free flowing, unique little world of expansion and connection. I think of this style as being very similar to pointillism - only much more loose with a variety of shapes. The teacher kept the student pieces and put a resin on them that needed to cure for a week.
It was a mind stretching class that was a totally new experience in how to use my imagination. Truly loved it! A big take away was understanding that learning any new medium transfers to your other mediums. Now when I paint in oils again I will have this alcohol ink technique I created in the back of my mind and will want to use it with oil paint and big brushes!
More about this type of painting to come. Enjoy painting! Thank you for reading my blog.
All the best until next time,
Cindy
