Serendipity in Art

It is great to let go of the control-freak inside (well, sometimes).  I was prepping some paper ready for painting and just love what happened here. 

What I am trying to achieve is a sense of perspective in this painting.  You have to imagine it upside down for this, I wanted texture of cracks and creases, with finer ones in the distance (top of the painting) and I wanted harder, larger ones in the foreground (bottom of the painting), so I used tissue for the finer ones and dug out an old fax roll for the harder creases.

Pleased with that aspect of the work, I then applied some lettering through a stencil using texture paste.  Now, texture paste takes ages to dry and I am impatient, I wanted to get started asap, so I blasted it with the hairdryer.  (sidenote here, I have managed to blow out one hairdryer in six months by using it in the studio, but it was an old one).

As I moved the hairdryer over the lettering, I noticed that the fax paper was beginning to darken, even after I stopped.

I thought it looked rather interesting like this, but even so, I will be painting over it.  At least I know how to achieve this effect if I ever want to!

Acrylic Mediums

What mediums do you use with your acrylics?  I have found the following to be very useful: 

Working from left to right, the large tub is Gerstaecker light modelling paste, creamy and very elastic, so doesn't crack.  It has a pleasant matt finish.  It is quite subtle, so sometimes I use the Reeves rough texture gel (at the back behind the Liquitex mediums).

Second from the right is a tin of Golden varnish, which I use at the end of a piece to finish it off and seal everything up against dust and damage. This is an acrylic resin-based varnish with UV protection, which provides a thin yet tough coating.

Sitting on top of that tin is quite an old bottle of Liquitex iridescent medium.  I only tend to use that on the goddesses for my talismans.  Mixed in with the paint, it adds a little subtle sparkle.

Third from the left, at the back, is the Reeves texture gel, which is a lovely, sandy texture.  I prefer to use Golden modeling paste, which is nice and firm and is made from marble dust.  I am out of it at the moment and must order some more in soon.

At the front of the Reeves texture gel is some Liquitex Matt medium (the one with the green label), I like the flow of this and it is good for adding to paints to thin them for washes or glazes.

It would appear odd that I also have the Daler Rowney Matt medium as well, but this is much thicker and more like a thin gel. It serves a different purpose and I tend to use it to glaze a layer, before trying out something I am unsure of, which makes it very easy to wipe off, especially when I use the Golden Open paints that I favour.

Sitting on top of that is a crackle glaze.  I had a go at this for the first time this January and I love the effect, I must use it more often!

Finally, on the far right is a bottle of Golden Open Medium, this is light and watery and perfect for watering down the Golden Opens while keeping them workable.

There are other mediums I would like to try, some with fibres in, some with little balls, some with pumice or even crystal flakes - I want to try them all over time!

A Few Sketchbook Pages

I posted about my sketchbooks a couple of months ago and how I like to call them Carnets de Travail after Elisabeth Couloigner's workbooks.  I feel a bit wrong calling them sketchbooks, when very little actual sketching gets done in them, I just paint, experiment and try out ideas.

Anyway, I have been working in them some more and here are a few pages that I have finished recently.

 

 

Works in Progress

I have two large canvases on the go, both 24" x 36" and they take a lot longer to complete, so all I have to show for my hard work this week are some detail shots.

This is the top left of canvas no.1, I love the play of  pink against the green and the pink scribing pulling the two areas together.

This is bottom right of the same canvas, here I am enjoying the play of green and purple.  There is a lot of texture built up in the many layers that I have applied so far.















This is on canvas no.2 and although it seems chaotic, I love the many layers and the lost and found symbols.

This area is the top left of the painting - just a note here, I quite often flip the paintings around and what starts as the top, may not end as the top!

Both these canvases are going to have some experimental work on them, while I try out layering landscape lines and elements.  It may go horribly wrong, but I have to try!

Zooming in with the Camera

I recently posted this large (24" x 36") completed canvas as part of my boundaries series and I think I mentioned that it has texture that wasn't clearly visible in the photo, so I took the time to get up close and personal with the camera and capture some of those textures.  It helps to get raking light from the side and at certain times of the day, this is possible.

Firstly, this is a shot from the upper central area, and here you can see the raised lettering, raised paint and the surface application of hand-scribing.

Here, from the top right, you can see the detail of the raised handwritten text, layers of paint (including buried raised text) as well as loosely woven fabric (scrim) at the bottom.

A photo taken just below the last one, shows some interesting edges of the fabric and complex colour layering.  The orange shows up beautifully here!

Finally! A Talisman or Two

After weeks of work, planning, experimenting, testing and learning new things, I have finally finished some of the little 4"x4" talismans that I have been working on.

I have had to learn how to use polymer clay, I have designed my own goddesses and learn how to make moulds of them, I have had to learn how to solder the metal findings and how to attach the figures to the panels securely, without using glue at all.

So here are two, I have more in the making:

EDIT:  They are both now SOLD.

Little Talismans

Yet more works in progress, these are the starts of a series of 4 inch talisman pieces that shall incorporate a lot of mixed media surface work before they are completed.

 

They are good fun to work on, I hope to get at least one finished by the end of the weekend.

Sketchbooks

Can you call them sketchbooks if very little actual sketching gets done in them?  One of my favourite artists, Elisabeth Couloigner, calls them Carnets de Travail - workbooks.  I like the sound of that.

Anyway, I have pages and pages in my Carnets of mainly paint, texture and some scribing, here are a few.

Stencil Sunday

One of my favourite ways to include mark-making is to use my own home-made stencils.  They remind me of screen-printing and I love how I can reuse them again and again.

I use a hot stylus to burn the design and as it is held like a pen or pencil, my own hand is evident in the finished stencil.

Today's new stencil is on the top left of this painting, the interlocking squares.  This is a negative image, the stencil blocks out the paint, whereas other stencils, like the chevron to the right of it, uses the positive image.

I am still working on the theme of boundaries, so all my stencils reflect that subject in some way and this design is based on field shapes.

Fearless Friday

Well, I really liked my sewn painting from earlier this week, but I knew in my heart it wasn't finished.

It needed something to unify all the jumble of paint colours and to give the texture the opportunity to shine.

I nearly didn't do it, I was really rather scared of spoiling a piece of work that I was very fond of, but the idea of brushing paint all the way down it wouldn't leave me.

So here is the result.  Sometimes it is worth messing something up in order to make it even better.

Mixed Media Monday

Sewn Paper on Canvas 8"x10"

Okay, I know it is Tuesday, really, but I intend to do a mixed media Monday post every week, where I try out a new technique.

All throughout the January challenge, I had been wanting to sew a lot of strips of painted paper together to make a whole piece and I also wanted to burn some Tyvek!

So, I decided to combine the two techniques and this is the result.  I am not sure I consider it a finished piece yet, I may end up cutting the sheet up and using it in something else.

Day 31 - All Thirty Paintings Together

Today is the last day of January and here are all thirty paintings together.  In reality, they aren't all evenly sized (or shaped), some were larger and some were smaller, some are parts of a larger painting and some have even been worked into since posting.

This has been a very fruitful exercise, I have so many ideas for future paintings and so many more techniques under my belt as well as more to try.

Day 30 - The Finish

This is the last painting in the 30 in 30 days challenge - Day 31 will be a composite of all of them together.

I have learned a lot while doing this challenge, I have worked hard, often rising early and/or working late to get many pieces finished.  I did extra at the weekends in an attempt to get a head start for the coming week.  I found that having several on the go at once to be very fruitful, it stopped me worrying about each one individually, if I struggled with one, I could put it aside, while I worked on another.

I intended to stick with 6"x6" at the beginning, but soon found myself  working larger and this has encouraged me to think about working on even bigger canvases in the future.

The list of mixed media techniques that I began with have mostly been tried out, apart from wax, so that is something I shall be trying at my own leisure in future.

Thanks everyone for coming to visit my blog and for leaving such encouraging comments, it has helped me to keep going, even when it was tough.

Day 29 - Hints of Turquoise

I am getting excited for the end of the 30 in 30 day challenge.  I am looking forward to getting a full night's sleep and having a bit of time for normal day-to-day activities at last!

On the other hand, I will also be sad that it is over, because I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's work every day and getting to know so many nice arty bloggers. 

Today's painting is on canvas, I hand-stitched a spiral before applying texture and gesso, followed by many paint layers, I love that little bit of turquoise just below the top.

Day 28

I spent a little time cutting some more stencils.  I now have a compass rose and some other boundary-related symbols, although none are used in today's painting.

I tried to make my own modeling paste, using talc, PVA glue and matt medium. It has created some lovely texture (the circles), but doesn't retain it's form as well as Golden modeling medium, which has marble in it.

It also doesn't store very well, I made this a couple of weeks ago and it is hardening in the jar I keep it in.

The script in the top left-hand corner is in silver acrylic pen, from some angles it looks darker and other angles it is almost white. 

Day 27 - Tyvek

This is my first attempt at using Tyvek (bottom left) in a painting.  First of all I painted it and then I ironed it to get the "bubble" effect and then I attached it to the substrate with the first layers of texture.

After several layers of painting, I decided it wasn't integrating enough into the rest of the work, so I glued a large sheet of tissue, before applying more paint.

If I had applied the Tyvek further on in the painting, on top of complex layers of paint, it would have been very interesting to burn it with a heat gun to reveal those layers.  Unfortunately, it was just white substrate underneath in this instance.  Something to try again, I think!

Day 26 - Colours that Sing

10"x10" on Canvas

We are in the final few days now of the 30 in 30 days challenge, hosted by Leslie Saeta on her blog. 

Much to my surprise, I have managed to keep up, even if it has meant I have to get up early or work late on some days.

Today's painting was begun alongside yesterday's neutral colour painting and the muted palette has influenced it a little, but I think it helps the vibrant colours to sing a bit more.

Day 25 - Neutral Colours

8"x8" on 300gsm Watercolour Paper

I did it!  Yes, I can paint in neutral colours if I try.

Colours used were Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Paynes Gray (with a very tiny touch of Cyan) and White.

I never normally use tube blacks or greys, preferring to mix my own, but I am very pleased with how nice the Paynes Gray is, especially when added to other colours.  It tints beautifully too and makes lovely soft greys.