Art Class - Calla Lily

Yellow Calla Lillies

Art class this week we had to find a picture by a favourite artist and do our own version.  My picture is based on 'Calla Lily' by Tamara de Lempicka.  I brought in my own fairly life-like plastic lillies and borrowed a vase from the studio. I used Lempicka's composition, vase of flowers and a present, and copied some of the leaves from her painting as well as trying to do a similar background to hers.  The painting is not as clean and smooth as I would have liked as the acrylic paper I used had quite a rough canvas texture. I found painting the glass vase quite difficult and left it until last.  Not a good idea as I had to finish the painting off at home without the vase to refer to. The actual vase was made of green glass but I decided this would make the painting too dark so I painted it as clear glass.  My background is not quite as blue as the photograph makes it look. Friendly critique, good or bad would be welcome.

Lesley x

Art Class - Amaryllis

Amaryllis Picotee

We've been looking at different artists for homework, Georgia O'Keeffe being one of them.  I just love her enlarged flower paintings.  For Christmas my sister-in-law, Sandra gave me an Amaryllis bulb which flowered for over a month sending up three different flower stalks, which flowered one after the other. I took a photo of one of the flowers meaning to send her a copy via Facebook but never got round to it. Anyway, I remembered the photo and decided to have a go at painting a copy, in the style of an O'Keeffe.  First I drew it in my sketchbook and coloured in with Spectrum Noir colouring pencils, then the next day I scaled it up onto a board and painted it in Acrylic paints.  I am pleased with the result and will definitely do more close-ups of flowers from my own photographs. 

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Clocks

The inspiration for my Claritystamp card this month came to me as I was going through all the nursery rhymes I could remember trying to comfort a poorly grandson. My daughter seemed to know far more verses to Hickory Dickory Dock than me, although I have a suspicion a few of them might have been made up.  

Stamps:  Claritystamps NDC Celtic Square, Calligraphy Corner, Fob watch, Mice on a Crescent, Letterbox set
Inks: Archival Black and Coffee, Adirondack various colours
Stencils:   Claritystamp Stripes stencil
Other: Theuva card, Claritystamp stencil brushes, pens black and sepia, Spectrum Noir Pencils, Clear embossing powder, black Sharpie pen

You will need to make a mask for the clock case.  Stamp the Celtic Square and Calligraphy Corner on a piece of copier paper. Draw the case which is mainly rectangles around the stamped images.  Notice the central line which helped me keep the design symmetrical. Cut out carefully with a craft knife.  You will need both the inney and outey. Also make a mask for the Fob Watch, clock face only, the Celtic Square and a small circle for the pendulum bob.

You don't want the top of the Fob watch or the hour hand to stamp so cover them with masking tape before inking with Archival black, remove the masking tape and then stamp onto Theuva card.  Mask the clockface  and stamp NDC Celtic Square on top.

Cover with masks. (Pendulum bob mask added after the photo was taken, nearly forgot it!)

Brush on inks to colour the clock case. I started with Butterscotch, then Peach Bellini and finally Cranberry. Use some copier paper to mask the horizontal edges and make them stand out more.  Barbara Gray used this technique to create a table in one of her demos on the TV.  When you are happy with your wood colour, cover with the inney mask with the inner rectangle removed and add more colour to darken the inside rectangle. I used a couple of strips of paper to create some highlights. Remove all the masks and stamp the Calligraphy Corner with Archival Coffee, second generation ink at the top.

Draw round the edges with a sepia pen and ruler. Add the hour hand with a black pen. Stamp on the mice. I have to admit here that I have cut up my Mice on a Crescent stamp to make four separate mice stamps no longer on a crescent. Don't tell Barbara.

For the wallpaper effect, mask the clock then brush colour through the Stripes stencil. Butterscotch at the bottom and Denim at the top.

Mask the wallpaper and brush on ink for the flooring. I used what was left on my brushes from the wallpaper to make a green. Enhance the shading on the clock case and colour in the clock face with Spectrum Noir pencils.

Trim, edge with Verdigris Promaker and mount on white card. The text was stamped onto white card using the Letterbox set, heat embossed then cut out, edged with a Sharpie pen and fixed to the card.

Hope this is some inspiration for you.  I will be sending the card to my grandson who is better now.

Lesley x

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