Art Class - Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a Vase

Another flower still life.  I started painting a still life at class but spent so long on trying to get the red velvet tablecloth correct it was nowhere near finished. We were supposed to add a scene behind the flowers but the view I had was of just others painting, not the window overlooking the river Wensum. I came home quite despondent.  I tried adding a view overlooking my garden but couldn't get the angles of the table to fit to my windows so time to start again.  We had to look at the paintings of Elizabeth Blackadder for homework and I found one I really liked 'Flowers in a Vase'.  So this is my homage to her painting.

I started by making some Gelli prints using mixes of black and white acrylic and some stencils to cover piece of paper. Always good fun when your spirits are low and my take on adding a scene behind the flowers.

Sketched in the flowers from my original still life and then added bright colour acrylic mixed with gloss medium so that the background still showed through. The primula flowers didn't stand out enough so I gave them an undercoat of white acrylic and then a yellow glaze again.  Finally some black pen around the outlines, which might have been a step too far.  I am much happier now and might go back and have another go at finishing the original one I started in class. 

Lesley x

Easter Cards

I didn't get to see my eldest two grandsons this Easter as they were a bit poorly but receiving these Easter cards from them really brightened my day. A big thank you to Wren and Orson love

Nanny Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Wee Folk

You can't help but love the new Clarity Wee folk sets, they are so versatile, so I was really pleased to see the topic for this month's challenge meant I could use them. I got so carried away that I forgot to take photos as I went along this month, but it is a fairly simple card (or should that be fairy!).

Stamps: Claritystamp Wee Folk sets 3 and 4, Large Art Nouveau Corner

Inks:      Archival black

Stencils: Clarity Seed Heads

Other:    Gelliplate, Acrylic paint (sorry can't remember exact colours used but a blue and green). Dymo labeller, Black pen, 

The background paper is a leftover from a Gelliplate session I did experimenting on printing on  fabric.  I think I took a fabric print over the Seed Head stencil then lifted the stencil and made another print with copier paper. I kept it because I liked the texture effect the fabric had left and thought it would come in useful some time. I don't think I would be able to reproduce it again but that is half the  fun of using the Gelliplate, you don't know what you are going to get.   

The stamping has all been done with black archival ink. First I stamped the Large Art Nouveau Corner then added some extra blue bells using the stamp from Wee Folk set 4.  The mushroom next, also set 4, followed by the fairies and stars from set 3. Not having a suitable sentiment stamp I used a labeller to print "Make a Wish".  After mounting the card I decided it needed a few extra swirls in the top left corner which I drew on with a black pen.  Finally a touch of shimmer was added to the fairy wings with a fine holographic glitter.

This is another version I made at the same time.  I liked the bluebell swirl better on this one but thought the background wasn't as interesting.  I also made a red version, similar to the one above and one with a shaving foam background. Hope this has given you some inspiration for your entry this month.

Lesley x

Art class - Not Oils

Sicily

For this class we were asked to bring in a photograph of a landscape that we liked. I chose to base my painting on a photograph that I took on a holiday in Sicily a few years ago.  We are supposed to be experimenting using oil paints for the next couple of weeks but it is difficult to transport a wet oil painting and I have to travel twenty miles to the class. Added to the fact that I don't own any oils, I have decided I will continue to use my acrylic paints but try to use them like oils. For this painting I have been trying out some more Acrylic mediums. In some areas I used fluid retarder to lengthen the time the paint takes  to dry. To add the shadows on the path in the foreground I made a glaze with gloss medium.  This allowed the underpainting to still show through. However, the painting looked patchy when finished with some parts matt and some glossy so I ended up going over the whole painting with a glaze to even it out.  My tutor suggested that it might look better less glossy and that you can mix matt and gloss medium together to get an eggshell like effect.  That will have to wait until my next trip to an art store. 

Lesley x

Art Class - Acrylic Paint

Still Life - Vegetables

Still trying to catch up. This is a still life that I did with Acrylic paint. After I got home from the class I thought the composition wasn't quite right so I scoured my gardening books for ideas and then added the flower pot and tools at the back.  Then I changed the fruit, which were originally oranges to apples to make it look more like a gardener had just picked some produce. Luckily the grandsons hadn't eaten all our apples at the weekend. The background changed colours several times and I decided not to add the edge of the table but just merge the yellow and blue. Friendly critique, good or bad would be very welcome.

Lesley x

Art Class - A Night Scene

Hare

I have been getting behind on finishing my paintings and putting them on the blog so now it is catch up time.  This one I started at home several weeks ago after I missed one of the classes where the topic was painting a night scene.  I have two cold-cast bronze hare sculptures by Paul Jenkins and thought it would be fun to try to create a night scene around a painting of one of them.  I have used gold and brown acrylic paint for the hare, to capture the look of the ornament rather than a real hare. For the sky I used an iridescent medium added to the blue to give the impression of twinkling stars.  The flash from the camera has bounced off this so the photograph isn't a true representation.  I had intended to add some trees in the background but once I had got to this stage I quite liked the simplicity of the painting and didn't want to risk spoiling it. My tutor does keep saying "Sometimes less is more".  Not sure what the others did in the class I missed but I enjoyed trying out the iridescent medium and using the gold paint.  

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Anything but a card

Papier-mache bowl

I got the inspiration for this project from the Gelliarts blog. Well worth a visit if you haven't done so already. The instructions for making the papier-mache bowl are explained very clearly there so I wont repeat them, look for yourself here.

Stamps :  NDC Round Tree, NDC Blocks of Fun, Hare from Woodland stamp set 

Inks:        Ranger Archival Jet Black

Stencils:   Claritystamp Leafy Swirl

Other:      White PVA glue, Tissue paper, Acrylic paints

The making of the papier-mache bowl took several days.  I used a balloon, left behind from my grandsons' visit, for the mould and an old phone directory and copier paper torn into strips for the layers.  I watered down white PVA glue to stick the paper strips on.  The base I made by taping on a lid from a Camembert cheese box. The bowl took longer than I had anticipated but a lot of that time was waiting for layers to dry.  When it was thoroughly dry I gave it a base coat of emulsion paint. Now the fun bit, decorating it.

For the outside I chose several Gelliprints in blues and greens, which I cut into rectangles of various sizes and stuck on randomly with PVA glue.  If you look closely you can see I have used the Leafy Swirl stencil on some of them. The inside I wanted to be gold so I gave it a coat of bright red acrylic first and then when dry a couple of coats of gold acrylic.  Obviously it would be very difficult if not impossible to stamp directly onto the bowl so I stamped onto tissue paper, cut around them and then stuck them on with PVA glue.  I did practise this first on a scrap Gelliprint and the method I found the best was to put the glue on the Gelliprint , carefully lay down the stamped tissue and smooth out with a paintbrush with more glue on top.  If the tissue paper creases or tears , which it did for me several times, just take it off and try again with a new piece. 

I used the Round Tree stamp in the centre of my bowl and one of the hares from the Woodland set around the inside.  For the edging around the top and base of the bowl I stamped the Blocks of Fun several times and cut into strips of five squares. Finally a coat of acrylic varnish. This project was messy but lots of fun. Hope you like it.

Lesley x