‘Sapphire Tree’ – mixed media on a recycled canvas panel.

I used an old fracture-pour painting that I’ve never liked.

I then smothered it in Galeria heavy structure gel, which I had tinted with some resin inks (gold and metallic yellow) – this gave it a very soft buttery colour, mimicking the colour of beeswax.

When it was dry, it looked like this:

I then built up more texture with another coat of the gel, after I’d applied a tissue paper stencil of a Celtic symbol.

I dripped tiny little specks of Golden fluid acrylic onto the surface and sprayed with water and some iso-alcohol. I moved it all around a lot, spraying where I wanted the paint to go into the fissures and folds of the dried gel. I used Phthalo Blue and White fluid acrylic. This stuff is fabulous paint. When it was dry, I sculpted the surface with a tiny tweezer (I couldn’t find anything sharp that was tiny – so used the mini-tweezers).

‘Sapphire Tree’ – gels, pastes and fluid acrylics on a canvas panel – 20 x 20cm

I really like how this has come out – I was aiming to mimic the look of an encaustic painting and I think it’s been successful.

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