Holiday Paint Out Week 2: Peace

I'm just coming in under the wire on this week's Holiday Paint Out with Creative Catalyst Productions. I have mixed feelings about it. I know I want to use this type of stenciling, but I'm not yet sure if I want the value to go light to dark or dark to light. I'm also not completely clear in my head about how to do that.

I do know thought that if you put too much matte medium in your fluid acrylics, yes, it makes a very subtle glaze, but oh goodness you may spend 3 hours trying to get anything dark.

This was originally just sort of the throw away piece, but then it developed better than the rest. Due to the time crunch, it has the darkest section smack dab in the middle. That creates a good challenge to work through!

I need to keep working with the silhouette idea. I also probably need to learn how to draw. Oh *sigh.*
Originally I wanted to focus on inner peace or something with flowers. (Still thinking about bouquets from last week's challenge.) But then I really became drawn to the idea of how peace develops and is established. I wanted it to be about how peace takes generations of slow change, but in reality, it became more about the sad side of peace. By the end I was thinking about how peace in one place is often at the cost of peace in another place.