2017-103: Opal Mandala in Color

Opal Mandala in Color by me (Maureen Frank)

This week’s theme: Opal

I present my coloring/painting of this week’s Mandala of the Week: Opal (from Sunday’s MotD post). I have to admit, I surprised myself with this one. Generally I stay away from making things look realistic and yet today it was as if someone else was painting it, pushing me to take the extra steps, to go the extra mile. Thankfully my schedule was such that I could take the time (3 hours) to honor the “push.” I’m glad I did. I really like how it turned out.

Several of this week’s mandalas of the day inspire the color choices. It was interesting to see the pairing of colors throughout the piece. It reminded me that 1) we’re not alone and 2) to create balance. Again this is a push from my normal: I usually prefer odd numbered groupings. Go fig! [as a side note: it is mercury retrograde 🙂 ]

From CrystalVaults.com about the Opal stone:

Opal is most known for its ability to bring one’s traits and characteristics to the surface for examination and transformation. Just as Opal absorbs and reflects light, it picks up thoughts and feelings, desires and buried emotions, amplifying them and returning them to the source. While magnifying one’s negative attributes may prove to be uncomfortable, it allows for understanding how destructive these emotions can be and assists the process of letting them go. Opal also illuminates the positive actions and emotions of the self, enhancing the good and true, and fostering one’s highest potential. It is a karmic stone with a reminder that what one sends out will return.

For this painting, I used M. Graham and Golden acrylics, Golden iridescent & gold paint on Canson’s mixed media paper, enhanced it with a black micron pen and a white uni-ball signo gel pen.

Soon I’ll be posting images of my progress through this painting on my ArtProgressions.com blog site.