Welcome to 2015! It doesn't seem possible!!! This time of year I tend to look back and think about the now 30 years since high school graduation (always my marker) and what I've accomplished in 30 years. Well, this year, I'm not going to let myself go there! This year it's all about where I am now, and everything I want to do and where I want to be. Future thoughts only! No looking back! You can't drive forward at top speed while looking in the rear view mirror. I think you get where I'm coming from LOL
This nice long weekend has been great for digging into paints and papers. I spent the good part of one day painting deli paper and then stenciling on top of it. You can see all the luscious colors here!
I picked up some fresh tubes of Liquitex Basics acrylic paints and discovered a new color that I really like - Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue. It kind of resembles the color of egg yolks but mixed with white, it becomes a fresh and softly sunny color that makes me smile. So I tested a bunch of my personally designed stencils on the painted deli papers and had a blast!
While at the craft store, I also grabbed some 12" x 12" canvases to experiment with. I have since determined that canvases do not work well for mixed media types of applications. It's very hard to scrape paint and smooth glued deli paper because the canvas gives so much in the middle. Next experiment will be on a thin wood surface or watercolor or bristol paper.
I'm totally in LUV with this pink version. What doesn't show up well in the picture is the gold Sharpie water-based paint pen that I used to outline some of the stenciled areas. It is all aglow with pinks, peaches and gold and it is yummy! The part I loved the most about this collage is the stenciled white painted deli paper on the bottom. More and more I am using the Tim Holtz Distress Stains and Inks with a dense cosmetic sponge to get these really beautiful blends of designs through the stencils. They produce beautiful colors and effects on any paper and I definitely recommend picking up the two sets of mini ink pads you can find at Michaels and ACMoore that contain the colors: Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Picked Rasberry, Fired Brick, Seedless Preserves and Spiced Marmalade. I'm using them all the time. The cosmetic sponges allow you to get a really smooth layer of color straight from the ink pads and controls how much ink you are applying.
And this is a really messy and unorganized experiment with acrylic paint and my gold Sharpie paint pen (again) on canvas. LOL I need to practice a lot more!
The two digital designs below are from a section of deli paper with the ink pads used through a test stencil of mine. It is really interesting up close in the original colors (1st image) and then I converted it to black and white and adjusted the hue and saturation with one color.
I'm excited to go to CHA on the 9th! I can't imagine Anaheim, California will be much warmer than Boston like when I attended in 2012, so I'm bringing a heavy coat for sure this time! The blast of inspiration from that show will feel sooooo good and re-invigorate my artist brain for sure!
I've got a great feeling about 2015 and everything I want to achieve and I plan to share a lot more here so keep me bookmarked!!!
Happy New Year and happy creating!!!
Margaret
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Happy New Year, Margaret!