Winding up...

...or is that Wingding up?  As the playshop season draws near to an end (only the Gelli plate one in June here in Creston at the college), I've had a bit more time to work on the studio.

Part of the clean-up for tomorrow's art tour (part of the Bird Festival here in town) has involved some actual painting time.  My goal for the week was to finish all 22 paintings and five altered books on the go...can you hear me laughing like a loon?

I did manage to finish some paintings, including 'Point, Counterpoint' which was started waaaaaaay back in February while on a visit with the Marshall's in Claresholm.  You can see Alice's post here about this start and others.

The Tic Tac Toe series of nine paintings (see previous post) also qualifies, I think, even though they're pretty tiny.

Another completion was 'The Space Between', an abstract representing all the things around us that are felt, but not visible.  Alice commented that this was full of eyes, masks and smiles, and I have to agree.  Don't you sometimes feel that we're being watched, applauded and encouraged by a bevy of unidentified strangers?

The studio is not only looking very tidy, it obviously will need some more starts to  get back into the frenzy it was a couple of weeks ago.  I think I can easily get a start on that this Sunday...snicker, snicker.

If you're out and about in Creston today, pop over to the college at 1:30 or 2:30 to see some Gelli play. You'll then be in the perfect place to register for the June playshop!

Tic Tac Toe...

is finally below.  I've been playing with these nine 4 x 4 x 1 1/2 canvasses for what seems like eons.  I started with the small pieces on a Gelli play day, covering the sides and front with some lively patterns.  In a later session I added some palette paper layers and a 'word of the day' to each.

Over the weeks, I've added bits of paper, additional text and goodness knows what else to the point where they're finally done.

Now that the photo session is done I've learned two things:

1)  that 'Play Kid' needs a much better haircut, and  2)  I'm already itching to start another set.  Where did I put that Gelli plate?

If you want to see what the Gelli plate is all about, I'm doing a couple of demos here in town this week.  

Why not pop over to the college on Friday and take a peek?  Oh, and buy some plants while you're at it...I know there are some heritage tomatoes (and much more) for sale!

Tic-Tac-Toe Times Two

How's that for alliteration?

I thought I'd do some studio photo catch-up.  Even though I've had little chance to work in there this past week due to wrapping my head around some challenging (for me) computer programs, I did manage a wee bit of play time on these nine four by fours.  You can see the start of this project here.

Last week I managed some time to add a word to each canvas with a stencil stolen from my husband John (if he reads this I'm in big trouble . . . again).

I decided this week to sort through my extensive stash of palette papers,

and match them up with the appropriate colours, with several options for each.

I coated the canvasses with liquid gel medium using this method.  Working with a canvas, though, can mean the papers need to be hog-tied to get them to adhere, hence some wrapped and elastic-bound minis.

 After drying overnight, the results were mixed,

varying from the very subtle Now piece (definitely more palette paper transfer needed here before further layers)

 to the jazzy Yes! mini.

 Passion's getting pretty colourful,

and Love needs a sanding at the bottom just to the left of centre to get rid of that too-light purple, and likely more palette transfers as well.

The transfer on Laugh has faded entirely into the background, so something additional will be needed.

I'm liking the strong vertical transfer on Sing - makes me think of my too-loud musical errors at the Bow Valley Singers practice last week!

Play's transfer is VERY BOLD, and heaven knows what will happen with this one - I'm rather liking the upside-down partial head at the top, though.

 Spirit looks a bit lacklustre right now, so definitely more to go on this,

and apparently there's no hope at all for Hope, which got missed in the line-up of photos.  All in all, I can see where some of these will go - how about you?  Where would you take them? What techniques would you add to the mix?

Tic-Tac-Toe!

I'm always playing games in the studio, and this set of mini canvasses that I bought through Opus is just perfect for that, isn't it?

Taking nine small canvasses, and attempting to print them with a Gelli plate was definitely playtime.  Each of these babies has a very small (2" square) opening on the back, which was the place for my finger to poke around and press the canvas to the painted Gelli plate - rather like trying to thread a needle in the dark!

For some unknown reason, I decided to tie these pieces together through the use of a rainbow theme and having no two stencils alike to start.  Some of them worked well, and some of them not so much.

By the time I finished patterning all nine of them, I had a pile of Gelli-printed papers, some nicely painted stencils,

 
and a row of randomly-marked baby canvasses.

I like the look of them lined up like soldiers on parade,as though they're ready for anything.  What underwhelms me are all the glaring white spaces poking through those pretty colours.

 They're even more startling up close.

Good thing I know how to use my paintbrush for a complete colour wash over all of them - that did the trick.

Stay tuned for stage three, as will I - I've no idea where we're going from here!  More Gelli printing?  Layers of papers?  Text?

 Stamps?  More stencils?  Transfers? 

The possibilities are endless, and mixed media can take them anywhere.