Papier mache wall art

It’s been commented on in the past that there are strange things going on in the dark recesses of my mind, that they seem to bleed out into the light through what I create … I think ‘they’ may have a point.

I seem to have a raft of canvasses lying around and despite repeated attempts to paint something of any worth on them I seem to fail and fail again.  The canvas here has been used so many times now that I can’t recall how many images lie beneath this final effort, perhaps it’s a furious amalgam of all that went before, a seething anger at the ineptitude slapped on the canvas below.

Whatever it is, using a canvas as a base for some wall art/sculpture is an avenue of interest to me and something I feel sure I will pursue further at some future point.  In the meantime I can think of at least two (more conventional) sculptures that deserve to be finished after well over a years worth of idling!

Mushroom bowls ~ a set of three

This is the first finished set of paper pottery bowls that I mentioned earlier (below) when I was showing the ‘little red bowl’.  The original inspiration for these bowls is obviously mushrooms, although the notion to create a set or two was borne of an earlier single bowl I made which is available in the shop, here.

I’m rather pleased with the outcome although with the weather being truely evil of late and in the absence of a light box I’ve really struggled to get any pictures.  I only managed to get  these photo’s during a very brief interlude in the weather that only really lasted long enough for me to set up my ’studio’.

More mushroom bowls coming soon, I’m experimenting a bit with alternative colours, so expect something a wee bit different.

Devilish abstract in watercolours and acrylics

I decided to do this after Jolene’s last post in which she was using toilet paper as a medium for her ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards).  I really liked the way her colours worked out and I saw something dark in her little pocket sized pieces of art.

I suppose some folks might consider this plagiaristic in some sense, although I don’t personally see it that way.  Certainly the image I’ve created contains elements from Jolene’s paintings, although I have used toilet paper in paintings previously (admittedly not to the same extent).  I heard this quote the other day though, and I’ve heard it before, although I can’t remember where:

… every artist is a cannibal, every poet a thief …

I suppose the notion being that there is no such thing as an original idea, only an amalgam of other ideas.  Certainly my inspiration here comes from somewhere different than Jolene’s.

The painting was done on a 12″x12″ canvas layered with loo roll and partly sculpted/molded to generate the raised area, this was overpainted with watercolours and later dry brushed with acrylics.

Simple boat painted in acrylics

I think I’ve said before that painting is little more than a diversion for me and certainly not something I have any great talent for, although I would like to improve my skills at least a little in the coming years!  Bearing this in mind I decided to make use of an online challenge, challenges are set monthly and have a time limit

I think it”l be a useful learning tool and I’ve already learned something.  Thus far I have learned that I should read the instructions more carefully as this meets none of the key requirements set, deary me!

Still, I had fun doing it and I suppose that that counts for something!

ATC Challenge Swap

Gosh!  We’ve been so busy recently, it’s hard to know what to talk about.  I’ve been feeling pretty ill this weekend so haven’t yet managed to put together the pattern for the owl brooches.  It’ll come later this week as I start to feel more like my old self again…that along with some instructions for turning magazines into paper bags, which is what we’ve done instead of buying paper bags for the upcoming craft fair we’re getting involved with.  We are so busy here that our house is starting to feel like a two man factory!

Today, I offer you the ATCs I made for the ATC Challenge Swap at SwapBot…

acrylic

watercolour, salt and seed beads

watercolour

watercolour and pencil

watercolour and pencil

Abstract tree and flower scene ~ acrylic painting

I’m not sure why, but painting seems to be something I come back to time and again.  I’ve noted previously that it can be a relaxing process and despite the obvious realisation that I’ll never create a masterpiece (it’s so passe anyway?!) I still enjoy that process.  Even when my vision comes up against that brick wall that is my talentless daubing of paint on canvas!

If nothing else it does provide me with an opportunity to practice simple decorative designs that I may begin to use as a theme on my sculptures, the flowers for example have featured previously on my Spring Time Bowl and the floral dancer and I have a feeling they will be incorporated into future pieces in the future.

Currently I have a few papier mache sculptures underway, each a demon or figurative sculpture and each temporarily on hold while I work on a couple of wood carvings, one in Elm which is nearing completion and which has already taken up over 10 hours of my time and another in Cherry which I’ve yet to start, they will however be coming soon.

some unrelated updates

Firstly, there are now felt brooches in the shop.  Each one of these is entirely handsewn by me and available for a bargain price of $6.50.

I made my first Inchies this week too and am excited by the results.  The first set is for the A, B, C, D, E, F Inchie swap on ATCsforall and the second set is for the Beginners Inchie Swap on SwapBot.

Both are painted with black acrylic paint before being embellished.  The first set used dictionary pages handcut into letters that were then coloured with crayons and outlined with gold pen.  The second set used the packing tape transfer method again with various backgrounds (vintage book page, painted baby wipe, painting with kids poster paints, newspaper).

elephant ~ original acrylic painting

This elephant was inspired by the Japanese elephant fabric I purchased some time ago from Etsy seller KalenaStudio and an idea from a swap on the popular swapping site Swap-Bot.

There was a swap created on swap-bot a few weeks back inviting people to create an ATC using only and all of the primary colours.  I’m always up for a challenge so threw caution to the wind and attempted to create something credible.  I must admit to sitting for hours thinking about what I could do that wasn’t simply an abstract arrangement of colour.  It was while I was making coin purses featuring the aforementioned fabric that I was struck with an idea and so the blue elephant was ‘born’.  I’ve struggled with acrylics in the past; they either dry too fast or go in the wrong place or don’t cover the colour below effectively.  I’m pleased to say that the elephant has none of those annoying characteristics.

The original ATC I painted was ok but not big enough so I scaled it up to fit on a 6″ x 9″ piece of board.  I like this painting, it reminds me of children’s story books illustrations.  It has a very slight air of The Elephant and the Bad Baby about it, which is my all time favourite story book from my childhood.  I think this character may feature again in the future in different guises and mediums, in which case I guess I’ll need to come up with a name for it.

I’ve added the frame for illustration purposes and the original comes without a frame.  It’s available in our shop now for a bargain price considering it’s an original.

new beginnings ~ an abstract series of acrylic paintings

This is a series of three abstract acrylic paintings completed on 6″ x 9″ board.  The theme for these paintings was effectively born of the first rather random painting in the series, a vision in green, which I have written more about elsewhere on this blog.

The other two paintings that accompany a vision in green, whilst acceptable as stand alone pieces, are really intended to be displayed directly above and directly below the originator and are displayed as such below … this is why I’ve reproduced a vision in green again so soon after I originally posted it first time around.

Comments about these are welcome be they questions, criticisms or, “I see …” type thoughts.  Whatever you think I hope you think something and who knows if anybody is interested I may let on just what it is I saw when I was painting these!

… in the blood

a vision in green

… beginnings

Ther are no beginnings or endings.  There’s  just change

a vision in green – an abstract painting in acrylics

I’ve been largely uninspired to do much of anything recently, particularly on the papier mache or carving front.  I seem to be too tired to sculpt with mache and the logs I currently have are somewhat uninspiring, being spruce they’re largely devoid of interesting grain or knots to give me a clue as to what they want to be.

On such occassions I’m inclined to to become somewhat introspective, self-absorbed and struggle to do much more than stick on a DVD and watch some film I’ve seen a dozen time before.  If I can pull myself together for a moment or two to pull my acrylics out of the cupboard then I find that it helps to do a painting, to get the creative juices flowing as it were.

The painting here is the product of one such bout, as ever I wiled away the hours over this, working quickly to blend the paints on the acrylic board and essentially to make things up as I go along, it started out as an abstract landscape but quickly progressed to become something else … something better, I think.

Make of it what you will and, as ever, I’m happy for comments be these constructive or otherwise.

Enjoy!

Coming soon …

… papier mache character model, celtic knots and crosses.