The Making of "Flower Child" - Dominique Hurley

I have absolutely loved birthing this child – a symbol of rebirth into a life aligned with Love, Peace, Truth, and Nature. Here she is, “Flower Child” (48″ x 48″) – Acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas. Click to purchase.

I’ve decided to present her to you diamond-shaped, but the fortunate art patron who brings this piece home could choose to show her in any direction – that’s why I often sign my paintings on the side.

I started working (or should I say playing) on this canvas a little over 5 weeks ago, almost as soon as I got this huge canvas home by bus. I’d say there are about a dozen layers of paint on it, if not more. As with many paintings, I had no idea where it was going when I started. Just to give you an idea of the process, here’s how she came into being.

After the usual smudging (sacred smoke ceremony) of the canvas, paints, and myself, I hung the canvas on the wall of my newly christened studio. With eyes closed, I simply played with paint, using my hands and warm colours. I then added various other marks and drips.

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I then used all sorts of tools to add several layers of cool and warm coloured marks all over the canvas. For some of these, I left the canvas hanging and for some, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with it (my favourite painting position). This is really fun – no thinking, just playing. After that, I added a few layers of coloured glazes to unify it a bit and to cover any spots of blank canvas.

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After gazing at this canvas repeatedly for a long time, sometimes in a meditative state and sometimes while walking past it to the laundry room (and everything in between), I finally got a sense of what it wanted to become. Although the vision wasn’t clear, I felt the presence of woman inside a flower. The feel was quite symmetrical, like that of a mandala – a restful, meditative state. After an hour or so of Googling for a photo model (since I no longer have weekly life drawing classes like I did last year at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art), I found the one I wanted and spent an evening sketching her in my own style. It took several hours as I worked and reworked the proportions and spacings.
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After that, I used an X Acto knife to transform my sketch into a stencil, which I placed in the very center of the canvas, following the diagonal axis. I then used a sponge and white paint for the first layer (in various thicknesses, depending where I wanted more shadow) and pearl iridescent paint for the highlights (which are only visible in special lighting – shown here on the finished piece). Because I used a sponge, some of the background remains visible, not only through her body, but in the spaces between body parts. Once again, this is my way to represent that we are not only physical, but also energy-based, spiritual being. I used interference violet for the first layer of hair.

I then spent a very meditative evening filling the big circle with tons of little gold circles (3 shades of gold).
For the hair, I used a brush to apply the magenta and then one of my many new refillable paint markers for the violet line work – great for Golden High Flow paints, which are very liquid. Love them! Thanks to Shannon of Urchin Art Supplies and Papery for gifting them to me for my large paint order. I then created a dark halo around the body and a light halo around the hair – dark against light and light against dark.

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I wanted to add more contrast around the figure and so I spent another few hours adding dark spirals and various other patterns inside the gold rings. I then placed some of my beloved acrylic skins to add both colour and dimension.

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The fun didn’t end there. Then came the petals – several layers of different viscosity of paint applied with a variety of tools. I worked on these for a couple of days and the painting got sunnier and sunnier.

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Last, but not least, I added 3-D paint to the inner petals and to parts of the body and hair, glazed the third level of petals to be darker, painted the deep edge of the gallery-wrapped canvas so that it doesn’t require framing and retouched many of the details for the umpteenth time (because I really like those markers and it’s a very meditative process). I’m sure I forgot to share some of the steps, but this gives you a good idea.

* Well, there you have it – the making of “Flower Child” – a very enjoyable creative process and art marathon – life is good!
Now, all I have to do is wait for the next warm sunny day to apply several coats of archival varnish for added UV protection. This is the not-so-fun step and highly toxic… check out the outfit I designed for that step… Hee hee.