Paint Red, White and Blue Loose with Foam Sponges

Summer conjures up images of endless flowers for me so I cave in to the urge to paint them.  This week was no different except I decided to use foam sponges instead of brushes to paint with.  I have been experimenting with the foam sponges as a way to exaggerate motion and paint thickness.  It keeps me from piddling along with details.

 

Here are the foam sponges I use.  They came from Target in the hardware and house painting section.  A pack of three was slightly over a dollar.  You can find them in most other discount stores or hardware and home improvement stores.

 

 

 

 

 

At first, I wanted to paint pink, orange and yellow blooms in an aqua fiestaware pitcher.  I blocked in the basic shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colors looked great on my palette, but I thought the painting looked anemic as it began to develop.  I was very happy with slapping paint on with the foam sponges though!  I used a brush only towards the end to finish off the table and pitcher.

Independence Day was right around the corner, so I made a decision to completely change the color of the flowers to red, white and blue.  That's the great thing about painting, you can make it anything you want....

 

 

 

 

I kept the pitcher the same color.

 



I changed the background from the neutral grey green to white in order to make the mood of the painting more summery.

Finally I was happy with July Blooms.  Here is the finished piece.  Those foam sponges are my new best painting "secret"!  Enjoy Independence Day.

Copyright Mona Vivar, July Blooms, 14 inches by 11 inches, acrylic on canvas

Now on Ebay at Mona Vivar Fine Art