Rusty Butterflies

 The butterfly shapes were cut from old watercolours, the canvas boards had collage & ribbon on them, then repainted with a fairly dry brush, & rusty nail & old wire to make the butterfly bodies.

Rusty  butterflies on canvas boards, 4" x 4", 10cm x 10cm.

Mixing Faux Rust technique ( find this technique at thicketworks ) with real rusty nail & wire to make the butterflies, then attached to repainted canvas boards.
(raylee).

Faux Rust Effect

 A very easy tutorial for this Faux Rust Effect can be found at thicketworks.

 This is my first attempt.......I started with a gesso undercoat on the paper/cardboard figure. Let this dry.

 Next I mixed Prussian Blue & Burnt Sienna acrylic to make a black & covered the figure.

 Tore pieces of paper napkin & stuck these on with heavy gel medium,

 Next I placed Burnt Sienna acrylic randomly, sprinkled cinnamon over the wet paint & pressed it in with my fingers.

 With a stiff dry brush I removed the excess cinnamon.

The big patch in this photo shows where I put gel medium on top of the Burnt Sienna & sprinkled cinnamon over it & again pressed it into the gel, this added more texture.
I like this effect, with some more experimenting this could become a favourite......many surfaces could become Rusty!
Thanks to Heather from thicketworks. A comprehensive  tutorial can be found on her blog.
(raylee).

Buried Treasure 2015 - "Red Roses".

Reposting "Red Roses" - collage & acrylic on canvas 24"x24".
This painting is from 14th. October, 2014.
My contribution to Seth Apter's Buried Treasure for 2015.
Please take a look at Seth's blog - thealteredpage
(raylee).

The Pretty & The Not So Pretty

 Pink Shoes.....corrugated cardboard, paper doilies, wallpaper & acrylic on canvas.

 following on from our previous post * creativity blog hop* katie-randomnest, i am sharing some of my messy behind the scenes photos.

 just two of the  not so tidy shelves  where i paint & store a lot of  "stuff" used in my mixed media work

 Simonne shared what she called some of her "bloopers"......here are two of mine, paintings of rocks that i thought were "crap".....

 ....this one i didn't even bother to finish.......some days the creativity just doesn't happen.
 i find these are good times to tidy, sort, rearrange & look at some of the things that have been forgotten in the muddle of  all the bits & pieces i have stashed for future projects.......usually i find something that re-inspires me to start again.
 as the work space gets tidier my head space seems to clear as well.

the good thing about acrylic is being able to paint over & start something new!
thank you to all our visitors for stopping by.
(raylee).

Floral Horse - Mixed Media Art

a close up of the finished painting, the actual size is: 24"x24", or 60.9x60.9cm & how it looked in the beginning......

 

 ......floral collage on a gessoed canvas.......i used gel medium as glue......then used this  rose patterned block print  to apply the pink acrylic paint, when it was dry i put on another layer of acrylic in blue.

used charcoal to start the drawing over the collage & rose print....

 brought in colour with conte crayons.....

 ......started to blend & spread the colour with my fingers.....

........& continued with more layers & blending.....

.....then some more drawing over this to give some detail.

 the first photo (at the top) is the closest to the real colour of the painting......the last one was taken before i sprayed the finished painting with spray fixative.

the rose print  under the pastel crayon adds extra texture, & i have left a lot of the collage showing. i like to see the layers within the image.
thanks for coming to look at our blog......we hope you enjoy what you see.
(raylee).

Buried Treasure - Re-Posting a Mixed Media Painting

 this painting was entirely experimental........i have never seen an encaustic painting, only on tv & artist's blogs.
so when i came to a tutorial in the book - "Surface Treatment Workshop", explore 45 Mixed Media Techniques, by Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson, queen of glue, & princess of paint for *faux encaustic* i gave it a try.

 first step: collage with torn green magazine paper on canvas......

added more collage & the image of the child......pressed bubble wrap into wet gel medium to create some texture & interest.....

 when it had dried added some crayon & acrylic paint........more floral collage.....then more paint glazes.....

 i didn't always like some of the colours when the paint had dried, so i just added a different colour until i was happy with it.
 i used transparent colours mixed with clear painting medium to make glazes as i didn't want to lose the layers.
as it was an experiment i didn't stress about it, in the end it all kinda blended together.

 pressed a rose stamp into more wet gel medium......then did the same with a leaf shape, added more layers of paint......

 each layer of collage, crayon & paint was covered with a mix of watered down gel medium, you can see it is still wet in this photo below......

 as each layer dried i continued to add more layers of  each medium until i thought it looked ok.

 i am not sure if it looks like * faux encaustic*, but i was happy with my first try.

 i can see layers going back to some of the collage,.....

& i like the texture created by this method.

so this is my contribution to "buried treasure" organized by Seth Apter, thealteredpage.
to see more please visit Seth's blog.
(raylee).

Wee Jasper Journal Pages - ( pre Creative Awakening)

 collaged & stitched pages for the "wee jasper journal" showing photos of "Nell".

 two "cretonne" hand sewn pot holders made by my great grandmother, "Nell".(they still have the black soot marks on them from the black kettle that hung from a hook over the open fireplace).
"Nell" in her younger days.

 i have been stitching the paper pages onto fabric & making tabs which will be used to secure all the pages when they are completed.

an excerpt from the journal:
 "her name was Ellen Mary but she was known as "Nell".
to me she was nana grace, my great grandmother. she lived in a small house built by the men in her family, from timber cut from the bush. (this was also my first home).
the floors were dirt, the walls were papered with newspaper & magazine pages to keep the draughts out.
no running water, it was carried in kerosene tin buckets from the river.
no electricity. kerosene lamps & candles provided light, we went to bed early!
there was a fuel stove & an open fire in the kitchen, which was the dining, living area, no lounge room.
washing up was done in a dish with boiling water from the black kettle that was always on the fire, & sunlight soap.
her days were filled with work. washing was done in a copper tub with a fire underneath to boil the water. the clothes & linen were moved around with a long stick & when they were clean, lifted out steaming with the stick & had to cool before they could be wrung out by hand & hung on the line with the long prop in the middle to keep the line up.
a blue bag was added the water to make the whites whiter!
she had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, & a flower garden. chooks, turkeys, dogs & cats & cows for milk. she made her own jams, pickles & preserves & still found time to make clothes & furnishings  & she sewed her own aprons from calico with embroidered "crinoline ladies", also tablecloths, doilies & potholders etc.
next to the fireplace there was a small window & hanging at the window were curtains made from a pink floral that nana grace called "cretonne". i have two worn tattered potholders made from those curtains.
her "waste not, want not " ways have stayed with me.
(raylee).