#ARTifacts - November 2017

#ARTifacts -'River Lady'

Tex - Mex Collage/ Mixed Media

Painting Bold Black & Retro Red

A bold black wood block print over white gesso on an old book page.
Cute polka dot shoes, & a vibrant little red dress.
(raylee).

Making Art Personal Through Images

 Just four weeks ago this was a blank canvas (48" x 36").
When someone asks me to " paint something for them", the question starts racing through my head: WHAT??.....Paint what?.....Not such a dilemma when you know the person well, as I did in this case.
Once the size & colours were agreed on I was pretty much left to make the subject decision myself.
I knew roads were a favourite with this person. My interpretation of this road is located very close to her birthplace of Cooma NSW. (Australia).
 First thing to do was cover the canvas with yellow acrylic, draw a basic composition for the road & the Poplar trees. Sort through the paper stash to find images of her hobbies, likes, memories & start tearing the suitable images to make a start.

 These papers become part of the grass, the colour of the knitted bits are the colour of the dry grasses around the Monaro.

 Sheep & wool were a part of her childhood living in the country.

 Filling in spaces with paint & torn paper collage. Trying to find suitable colours & textures for the composition.

 A visitor taking refuge from the rain.
The sky is becoming a mixture of blue sky images, fabric, feathers & knitting...... my favourite part so far. The yellow Poplars are standing tall reaching for the light.

 "We are all mad here"......not just the sheep!!

 The butterfly represents her new venture into sewing & creating her own business.

 "Blood Lines"= Family.

 All the images blend & complement each other to tell her story.

 Towards the end some of the images have been cut to give them more definition.
Layers of paper & paint all come together to create  this painting of happy memories, & maybe some
fun discovering the relevance of some images.
(raylee).

Intention...becoming a reality

Collage & acrylic on canvas. (raylee).

Image transfer/mixed media

"This is what she wrote......"

 Image transfer on old book page with gesso undercoat & cobalt blue acrylic around the edge of the pages.
I found this image a long time ago in a National Geographic magazine.
When I paint I brush excess paint onto old book pages etc. As I did this I noticed the words " this is what she wrote" at the top of the right hand page....this page just so happened to be the one I had chosen for this image transfer........so this was my inspiration for this artwork.

Drawing over a dry watery coat of burnt sienna with pen, added some colour to the drawing with watercolour pencils.

 Collaged a paper border with printed handwriting on it onto the canvas board.

 Then added the book page with gel medium. When it was dry I added the corner collage pieces.

  Last of all crayon which I smudged with my fingers to soften the overall appearance of this picture.

(raylee).

Art today....texture & layers of paint

On my work table......mark making, paint layers, creating texture with palette knife, stencils, stamps (from recycled found bits & pieces) & impasto gel with acrylic on canvas.
(raylee).

Faux Rust Butterflies....Mixed Media

 Faux rust butterfly 40 x 40 cm.

Faux rust butterflies on fridge, 10 x 10 cm.
(raylee).

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).

Crayon, Watercolour Pencils & Pen Drawings & Doodles

Quick drawings & doodles on old book pages & over scribbles in a small sketch book.
(raylee).

Keep the Daily Flow Happening......

......Some days there are so many other things to do that art gets pushed to the back burner.
I decided in September that I would try to do something creative every day , even if it was only for a few minutes.
It is not always painting or drawing, sometimes a few rounds of crochet, sewing, or just taking photos, arranging a bunch of flowers in a vase.
Quick imaginary sketches on old book pages, or drawing over used sketch book pages are my favourites at the moment. Not thinking too much just letting a face appear.
 (crayon, pen & watercolour pencil).
Keeping a record of my daily bits of creativity helps to keep track of every thing I make/create.
(raylee).

Where does the inspiration come from?

A collage acrylic on canvas that I had forgotten to post. Out of sight out of mind as they say. The little deer was from a magazine & the trees I cut from a piece of scrap wallpaper. The texture of the design on the wallpaper was very soft to the touch. The leafy patterns worked well for the trees. As usual I started with an idea which was to incorporate the colours from the floral fabric I had made slip covers from for the outside chairs.

Add caption

After a lot of experimenting with colours the painting became a lot more snowy but included all the colours from the fabric used on the chair covers.

The fabric is so different from the finished painting but started the process that created the snowy scene. In some of my first art classes many years ago we were given pictures to paint from, not to copy but to interpret in our own way. A valuable exercise that I use sometimes when I am not sure what I want to paint. (raylee).

five by five, small works exhibition december 2014.

 In 2012 I  sent 2 mixed media art works to Seth Apter thealteredpage.blogspot.com to participate in this collaborative project.

 Now they are a part of this exhibition.

these two art pieces are my contributions to the "Five by Five Small Works Exhibition" at the Empty Spaces Project in Connecticut.

There are more than 100 art works from 65 artists  - now available to see & purchase online http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/p/five-by-five.html

(raylee).

Sharing the Blues

a recently completed collage/mixed media on canvas.....

 now hanging in the one restful space in my art room.

a bit of cleaning happening on my desk.
(raylee).

Paint & Paper Chair Makeover

 my brother gave me this second hand office chair more than twenty years ago. i am not sure how old it is. it's still going strong, i use it every day at my messy desk.
 when he gave it to me it had a grey vinyl seat & brown varnished back & legs. i gave it a makeover many years ago, but it needed another.
 above is how it looks now.......much bluer,  lighter & summery.
 below:  the back of the chair before i removed the old orange  suede seat covering, then some sanding, a few coats of paint, used wrapping paper from my grandson, an image from a newspaper & a decoupage paper image of a mermaid painting was all it needed for a new look.

 the back in progress....

 & the front......i cut some fish from the wrapping paper & glued them over the sides of the mermaid image.

 old style image on the back......& older still on the front.

 i stitched a new seat cover from an  old pair of  denim jeans courtesy of Simonne, & the blue spots on this piece of new fabric matched the blue of the denim & the fish paper.

i am always amazed at how paint & (paper) can make such a difference.
(raylee).