I have a small pile of 12×12 scrapbooking cardstock in colours I don’t use anymore so I’m slowly using it up as the base for works where the initial colour won’t show. This one has layers of gelli print scraps, stencils, old rub-on letters, patches of colour with Gelatos etc. All good so far, but what next? I’ll leave it on my desk for a few days and see what happens. (only part of the 12×12 is shown)
This morning I have been Gelli printing onto heavy water colour paper that I prepared with a faux Chine Colle technique last night. In many ways, just fancy collage. I love the results I’m getting and can see lots more experimentation coming. I am thinking about adding words to these, but am not sure yet. As much as I love some of them, I don’t quite see them as finished pieces. Here’s what I have so far:
Last week I was in Napier at the Director’s of Small Museum’s one day meeting, then three days at the MA14Napier museum conference. Great stuff; lots of new contacts, lots of learning, lots to think about. So this morning I caught up on a few tasks and this afternoon decided I needed to unwind a bit. Out with some art journals, StencilGirl stencils, inks etc. Four hours later, I am feeling restored. And yes, I was having a purple day – thank you for asking!
This afternoon I held a mixed media class, Layered Steps: Bloom. Liz, Mollie, Sharon, Shei, Maria and Denise were awesome. They each did such a great job with their canvas and what I love is that, following the same process, each one ended up with something unique to them. We had such a good time that there’s definitely going to be more classes coming. Here are some pictures of the process, and a line up of the artists with their finished works.
Started with a collaged background, gesso through stencils, drippage, collaged gelli tissue paper, stencils direct onto the image, a bit of splatter. Brighter than my usual colours – must have been feeling extra happy! This might just be the sample for a new class I’m teaching 😉
This is the last page, done this morning, in the journal I started when Tony went to Waikato Hospital on the 19th of January. Life is not normal in the sense of being the same as it was – seemingly simple things like a hot shower still exhaust Tony – but life is slowly settling into a new normal. We’re very fortunate and very grateful.
Today Tony was super tired and went back to bed about 11.30 (healing after two major surgeries is hard work). I decided to get out my Gelli Plate, some Golden Fluid Acrylics, stencils, old lace and some texture plates. Oh, and a random pile of paper. Hours later, here’s just a few of the papers I now have tucked away for card making, collaging, art journaling and other fun stuff. And there’s a wee supply on it’s way to an arty/crafty friend!
When I saw the art calendar challenge 2014 at The Kathryn Wheel blog I knew I had to join in; you can find all the details by following the link. I love Kathryn’s examples and we share a name, so how could I resist! I am working on loose sheets, 2 A4 pages at a time, and will bind them at the end of the year. I’m finding my work is increasingly detailed and fussy, which is not really me at all, but I’m enjoying it so who cares…
For these pages I used Dylusions ink spray and a Donna Downey stencil, then gesso and Tim Holtz Distress Paints with one of Michelle Ward’s stencils. I used archival ink to stamp some text here and there, and to add a fine black border round the outside edge of the pages. I used the Dylusions again,with two Tim Holtz stencils, the bubbles and the stars. I cut a bunch of 1.5×1.5 squares, edged them with black archival ink, wiped gesso across the centres, and wrote in the dates with a Stabilo pen. I stamped the month and year with black Archival and some old Memory Makers foam stamps, then added some details with a White Signo pen.
This year I am organising an art journal round robin, so spent last night and this morning starting to decorate the cover. This involved gesso, Dylusions inks, stencils and gold heavy body acrylic. Then today I have been preparing a couple of pages in another journal and, guess what? Yes, I used mainly the same supplies… I’m consistent if nothing else! I find a page that has paint, gesso and a bit of texture is often enough to get me writing, and then all kinds of thoughts spill out onto the page.
I’ve been working back over some starter layers in my art journal today. I’ve got a lot on my mind at the moment, not all of it positive; despite that I know how fortunate I am, how fortunate we are. Really, life is good…
This page started with layers of gesso, fluid acrylics, Dylusions spray ink and stencils. Today I added more ink, and lettering which I sprayed lightly with water to let it run. Finally, I journaled with a white chalk pen so that it’s not readable.
Cath Sheard 