I bought myself one of the small 6×6 Dina Wakley journals, which have lovely thick watercolour paper, and the new Art by Marlene Artsy Arabia paper elements. Love them! I’m having so much fun playing in this smaller format with the Dina Wakley gloss sprays, DWM acrylic paints, a few stencils and the paper elements.
Today’s #cjs20 artist is Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk – I hadn’t seen her work before, and really like it. I’m pleased with my piece although the scanner refused to pick up the fluro colours so it’s actually got brighter highlights than this shows.
I’ve done Creative Jump Start a few times over the years, but missed last year. I decided to join #CSJ20 with Nathalie Kalbach again this year. I’m always a day behind because of the timing but some people don’t post every day so – shrugs!
I’ll share my creations every day but not the full challenge details out of respect for it being a paid class. If you want to find out more or join in, click on Nathalie’s link. I always find I learn heaps, and am reminded of techniques I’ve enjoyed in the past.
Today I used a favourite photo of Monte Cassino Abbey from our 2010 trip as the starting point, then cut multiple stencils from paper. Once the paint was dry I added a few pen lines. This is not my usual style, but it was fun, and I’d certainly use the process again.
I taught an art journal class on Thursday night and a gelli print class on Saturday in Greymouth, through Left Bank Art Gallery. The classes were held at CoRe, a fantastic community facility run by Cassandra Struve, one of those people who has so much passion for community development and can see the possibilities then act on them.
Some of the people who attended didn’t want to be photographed, which is fine, so these photos are entirely representative. People seemed to get a lot out of it and enjoy the processes. I had brunch with Penny Kirk yesterday and spotted a women who had attended the gelli class. I said hi and she told me she’s already turning her gelli prints into cards and will be buying her own gelli plate.
I’m already talking with Cassandra about running more classes in the new year, taking people to the next level with art journals and printing. As I said to Tony this morning, it’s funny that when you travel away you quite often get more support than at home. Perhaps when you’re local people assume you don’t have much to offer, or figure they can catch you any time?
Here’s a few photos of the classes and what people created. Enjoy!
I’ve spent a couple of hours today making more gelli prints using stencils, masks, stamps and bubble wrap. What do I do with them? I use them for collage, in my art journals, card making and even in finished art works. Some of them will end up with more paint, crayon, pen etc over the top yet.
I’ve been binge watching videos about Distress Oxide techniques and one first Tim Holtz then Jennifer McGuire shared really appealed to me. I ended up combining it with some other techniques and it’s produced some great card backgrounds.
This works best with Ranger gloss card stock (needs to be gloss) as photo paper tend to go sticky when wet. I did multiple layers of Distress Oxides using my craft mat and spray bottle, and added pattern with stencils to lift off colour, add colour, seal with Micro Glaze to protect the underneath colours or heat emboss the wet ink with clear embossing powder, and finally added flicks of colour with the Tim Holtz Splatter Brush.
Here’s what I ended up with once the layers were done:
As you use more and more layers and water the colours get very chalky, which is the point of the Oxides and it’s a lovely effect. Here’s the thing though – if you add a thin layer of Micro Glaze to the dry card then burnish it the colours brighten up and glow, and somehow all the individual layers show. It’s quite impressive. Here’s how they looked once I’d added the Micro Glaze and buffed them (not the same cards but you get the idea I hope):
(These photos were taken in bright daylight and there’s lots of shadows – sorry about that!)
I’ve been playing catch-up for various reasons. I’m using a wee 6×6″ hardcover journal this year and am enjoying the format. Distress paints, Dylusions paints, stencils, collage materials, Pitt Big Brush markers.
I’m a StencilGirl fan from way back so was delighted to find MaryBeth is one of this year’s artists. Her recipe was all about the layers, which suits how I work – this piece has taken a couple of days because the various mediums needed time to dry. I decided to work on a 10×10″ canvas because this wouldn’t work well in my art journal, and loosely based the image on photos of the Patea cliffs where I live. I took photos of two of the layers as I worked.
Yesterday’s artist was Catherine Scanlon – I had to go out after work so am a day late posting. This was fun, way out of my comfort zone, and I’m much happier with the result than I expected to be. I used a variety of media, and a traced photo of some flowers.
Today’s artist is Andrea Gomoll who does the most glorious mixed media; her recipe was largely about how to make gorgeous backgrounds. My first attempt didn’t work because I used too much water and ended up with muddy colours; I’ll work over the top of it and it’ll be fine eventually. I’m so pleased with the second attempt, which is on Tim Holtz Distress Watercolour Cardstock.
Cath Sheard 