Day 12 - Objet Trouvé

A part of today's painting is some found bargello stitching on coarse canvas.  I felt it helped represent the fences found in the landscape.  It took a while to fit in properly, the wool just became fluffy and messy as I painted on it (and the colours were unexciting 1970 browns).  I ended up enclosing it in sewing pattern tissue. The coarse canvas was hard to integrate as well, but I  added some modeling paste to the bottom, which itself created some lovely texture.

Away from the wet media, I have been looking through past sketchbooks and for ideas.

I have also been having fun cutting some more stencils.  Can hardly wait to use them!

Day 11 - A Snow Day

Snow Day: 9"x9"

Our weather here today is very cold and many parts of Scotland have snow, but here on the coast we have escaped with a minor dusting, apart from the hills.

I think this may have affected today's painting, somehow!

Process

I started with some stretched lightweight canvas.  My sewing machine hates the heavy canvas that I normally use for my oil pantings and I wanted to keep my options open in case stitching was needed.  It wasn't.
I applied some modeling paste through a chain-link stencil and some scrim before painting all over with gesso.
The next stage is my favourite, I just work layer upon layer of paints, knocking back, bringing forward until I am satisfied.  I applied some tissue horizontally across the painting to reduce the strength of the chain-link fence and then painted some more.
I tried a little crackle glaze at the top right, wasn't too keen on the result, so painted over it.  I pondered for a while, it looked unfinished until I added the scribing with the white marker pen and now it is complete.

Day 10 Mixed Media Explorations - Paint Markers

This painting is on acrylic paper which I stretched before use, but it still buckles when a lot of water is used.  I think I prefer either canvas or watercolor paper.

I started by applying some scrim and then I continued with layers of paint.  I finished with some writing using an oil-based marker, Uni-Paint with a medium nib. I love the bold marks it makes.

I then put a light wash over part of the painting, to unify the elements.

Day 9 - Crackle Glaze Revisited

Today's painting is much quieter after yesterday's very noisy one.  I have been practicing with the crackle glaze on bits of paper and think I have, er, cracked it!

It is included in the top left of this painting.

Many thanks everyone who visits my blog, I appreciate it very much indeed!

Day 8 - Mixed Media: Sewing Again

Knowing that yesterday's picture just needed the lines to bring it to a conclusion, I looked at another piece today that needed a certain "something" to finish it off.

It has been on and off the easel several times, but all it needed were some vertical lines to tie some elements together and to create a bit more interest in an otherwise "quiet" (relatively speaking) area.

This piece started life off as a linen tablecloth that I bought from a charity shop.  You can just see, the fabric's woven pattern on the bottom right.

I stapled a section onto board, applied some gesso and texture (modelling paste, scrim, tissue) before applying layers and layers of colour.  A lot.

Circles began to present themselves to me so I went with the flow and encouraged them to emerge with my paintbrush and charcoal.  There is more stamping, stenciling and scumbled paint, writing and finally, the sewing.

I have been working on this for days and I am delighted to see it completed.

Day 7 - Mixed Media: Sewing Machine

Today's painting is on heavy watercolour paper, has some scrim and modeling paste through stencils before layers of paint are applied.  I drew on some tree shapes and finished it off with machine-sewed lines at the bottom.

Day 6 - Mixed Media Explorations: Collage

Today's piece starts off with texture on heavy watercolour paper, then gesso, then many layers of paint, applied with brayer/sponges and brushes.  Throughout these layers I sponge through stencils, stamp with various tools and scratch or write on it. 

At first these actions are intuitive, but I am also bearing in mind my theme of "boundaries".  I use squares and circles and mesh patterns to represent enclosures and I use longer lines to represent divisions.  Much of this disappears beneath further layers, but adds to the overall interactions of colours and edges. Towards the end of the piece, things slow down and my decision-making becomes more considered.

Here, I concluded the painting by adding some corrugated cardboard near the bottom and drawing the leaf-shapes, tying them together with a simple line.