The Joy of Acrylics

Years ago I painted primarily with acrylics.

The control, layering, and fast-drying were a draw.

And so were the rich, strong, vibrant colors I hoarded.

A return to the fun and abandon of these paints is long overdue.

MDF Boards

As soon as I'm better (not sleeping 18 out of 24 hours a day),

I get to start painting the core storyboards of Vladimir's Gift.

Mark made me 12 8x8 inch boards...

...and 12 8x16 inch boards,

enough for all the acrylic paintings in the book.  I'm trying to keep

the boards relatively cat-fur-free in a bag until they are gessoed.

Tanji is not cooperating:  Where's MY book?

I can't wait to put brush to board, even if cat fur is flying everywhere.

Landscape Colors

I painted this miniature acrylic several years ago

after a huge San Francisco painting by an unknown artist.

The color palette has haunted me, garishly bright, almost neon.

Lately I've seen the colors pop up in news broadcasts.

Also at the "Winter in Venice" Venetian Vegas display.

Yellows, blues, violets, pinks, touches of greens.

These are the colors I return to again and again.

(untitled acrylic, 2006, 24" x 24")

 Here they are again in Christmas lights...

 And in a display highlighting a color-enhanced landscape.

Welcome to Merry Bright Art!

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Lesley, alias Merry Bright, and I am going to be posting blogs about my passion: pretty and fun art, with a focus on Christmas, food, and cats.  That includes art journals, sketchbooks, watercolor and ink, miniature paintings, art-shows-to-go, illustration art, deco cards of the 1920s and 1930s, and plenty of inspirational holiday images.  I am exploring how the art and little joys of Christmas can extend all year round.

I maintain a blog about my family Bengal Cats, and these beauties pop up frequently in my art.  Visit our daily adventures here.

A bit of background...

I started painting in 2003 for fun.  Like a lot of people starting out, I tried different things with inexpensive materials.  First it was abstract paintings using student grade (barely) acrylics on Masonite board.  My first real painting, with a frame and everything, is still one of my favorites:

After a year or so of these abstracts, I tried my hand at

miniature paintings and put them together in a mini exhibit:

In the mean time, I was inspired by our cats to make "Bengalized"

acrylic paintings.  Once again, my first is one of my favorites.

I really enjoy painting "the boys," they bring so much happiness.

My art style was strong and pretty immovable from the start: bright colors within strong outlines.  To broaden my range, I tried art journaling with new art supplies, starting with two art journals focused around a multimedia cat theme.

I started dreaming of an illustrated cat book, but 2009 was a rough year for me and by Christmas time, I was eager to have a very merry holiday.  This resulted in a series of Christmas cat blogs and I fell for the beauty of the season.

 My journals shifted to a Christmas theme, with two plans:

a children's book featuring our cats and a Christmas art book.

Then I was side-lined by a few years of depression.  I write about that here in three blogs.  The way out in part has been a return to art journaling this past summer, and the goal of producing enough quality art to put together a Christmas book.

Luckily I have a beautiful group of watercolor pans

and brushes I collected before I stopped painting.

The first step was to break out my unused Moleskines and start writing...

...and then it was time to try drawing and painting again.

Next, I built up a collection of reference books on drawing & painting...

 Art journaling...

Favorite artists...

...and Christmas treasuries too.

I will feature some of my favorite books in upcoming blogs.

So now its Christmas season 2012,

time to collect and share inspiration for a year's worth of art...

Thank-you for visiting, please come back soon!