Hand Painted Placemats - Four Sets

I finished the painting on the placemats last Sunday, and here and there, in very short sessions, complete the stitching over the last couple days, as well as applied my shop stamp and a coat of poly acrylic to the backs.    Lined them up this afternoon to photo and ... well ... the photos did not come out real well; a bit of glare coming in the windows and I'll start over, perhaps tomorrow. 

I like how these turned out.

Painting a Few Placemats and the final Garden God

After a two week wait, I've finally got around to pulling out the paints. 

To begin, Beau drilled a hole in the last concrete Garden God so we could hang on a tree (the hook didn't appropriate setup in the concrete) and asked that I go ahead and paint it.  

I don't think he's going to give him a name. 

I decided to warm up by creating a couple sets of table placemats.  I'll perhaps, put a couple in my shop and one set I want to send to a niece who is getting married in August.    (After here, I plan on moving to the 3 guitars that I've picked up recently).

Creating these placemats is a multiple step process that I've been working on over the last couple days.

• Cut  4 strips that are 72" x 20" from the roll of artist canvas.   
• Paint the front of the canvas with acrylic paints (with a couple different techniques).
• Apply a wash to the backside of the canvas. 
• Apply layers of spray paints
• Add writings .. some freeform, a Lancelot Poem, etc. 
• Add stampings in a variety of colors
• Two coats of Polyacrylic to seal.

I like to work the canvas all in one piece, versus cutting down to placemat size for continuity.  I'm wanting these unplanned.  The same patterns and ideas on each placemat, put not in specific order ... like graffiti on a wall.

I should finish up on the painting phase tomorrow.    Here's a couple examples so far. 

1st layer of acrylic paint and 2nd layer of spray paint

3rd layer of stencils, stamps and doodles.   I decided to leave the writings out of this set.

Here is one of the canvas that is complete.

I'll be working on these more tomorrow.

Concrete Garden Gods, Sculptural Masks

Back in early January I sculpted four concrete masks using a sand technique.   Then, they were wrapped up in a plastic bag with water to cure.   I checked on them early March and moved them to the back porch, where they have been keeping a watch on whatever it is that goes on back there.

Well, since I've a variety of things lined up for painting, I moved these to the front.    Originally there were four masks, but on one of them, the hook did not properly embed in the back.   I started to throw it out, but Beau put a claim on it.   He's going to drill a hole in the forehead for hanging on a tree.

For the remaining three ... painted them with a base coat to seal the concrete, and then painted on some personality and sealed with polyacrylic.   These guys weight between 2.4 and 2.12 pounds and are roughly 7" wide and between 8 and 11" tall.

Proudly presenting the three newest Garden Gods. 

Ms Leis reinvented as Muse of Bountiful Blessings

Prelude:  In preparation for another change to The Big A (which I'll discuss in another post), I stopped by K-Mart on the way home from yard sales and bought 5 cans of black spray paint and 2 cans of gray textured stone paint.   I thought I give the paint a try-out before tackling The Big A.

Ms Fleur-di-Leis :   Ms. Leis has spent much of her life being an after thought.  Back in those days when I was hand moulding concrete torso's, I decided to make one the full thickness.   And thus, this torso was created.    I didn't like her (at this thickness) much and so, she spent a couple a year or two hanging on the fence in a far corner of the yard.   Then, upon a long overdue whim, (Spring of '95 I think), I cleaned out the area and decided that I really must do something with the concrete torso (throwing her away just didn't feel like the right option), so I took her inside and painted her red with a black Fleur-di-Leis pattern.    Then, I took her back outside, to the opposite side of the yard and hung her back on the fence.    And, other than a month or so stint tucked away inside the shed for Hurricane Katrina, she's been on that fence.    I check her out frequently as a type of study -- durability of acrylic paint on concrete in full sun (versus a couple painted pieces I have in the shade).      She's pretty faded, making her a good candidate for a makeover.

So, I brought her down and cleaned her with a bleach solution and let her dry in the sun for a couple hours.   Then, sprayed her with a coat of black spray paint.   Dry for another hour and then sprayed with a coat of the Textured Stone Spray Paint.      Hummm .... boring; but, I suppose, better than she was looking.

Along her her new wardrobe, I moved her over to hang with the carved concrete dancers, a mirror experiment that's still holding up quite well and one of the concrete tub planters.   This area overlooks the tomato garden where she can be Beau's Muse of Bountiful Blessings.

Tamborines No Longer in Waiting

Sometime back I brought home 4 Tamborines that were found at different yard sales on the same day.    They sat in the corner of my studio for awhile and then, after awhile, I hung them on the wall to get them out of the way.   I often glanced at them awaiting inspiration.   And, yesterday, it did !

Back in 1991 Beau and I took out first vacation.    Beau was taking me to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Carlsbad Canyon.    I thought we were going on a vacation, but, in reality, it was more like three weeks to physical fitness .... I never realized that he intended that we were hiking in all these places and I certainly wasn't in that level of condition.  (love can be so blind).   Anyway, while we were out on a stretch of highway leading towards Carlsbad, we kept seeing signs about an upcoming attraction.   You know, these signs every couple miles that tell you 'X place' is just ahead .... rock candy in 50 miles ... snakes is 48 miles ... hamburgers in 46 miles, etc. etc. etc.   And, we got to talking about how we could go to the middle of nowhere and build a 'Beau Town' and sell Gumbo and Jambalaya and post signs for 50 or more miles in all directions.   The conversation was a lot of fun.     It came to me as I was looking at the largest tamborine ... and well ... eat at Beau Ville will now, and for many years to come, grace the wall over my studio doors.

And, while I was at it; decided I might as well do the other three empty tamborines (or knockers) while I was at it !

Two Sets of Morraccas .. continued

The morraccas have patiently been sitting on my side table ... waiting ...
I'd been planning on putting the paints away, some soldering practice is calling me, but there they were ... patiently waiting.

So, took them outside, set up the spray paint area and added some spray stencils.    Let dry for a couple hours then brought in and put some writings on the larger red set.   I felt the orange were so small that writing would be overkill.   I'll plan on finishing Thursday.

Two Sets of Morraccas

Heck, it's not like I don't already have about 4 different projects in progress ... but since :

1. these two sets of Morraccas have been hanging around for quite awhile, and
2. they require paint, and
3. I have paint bottles spread all over my room ..

Might as well work on these as well. 

Both sets were picked up at different Yard Sales somewhere in the past (not worth researching), and were tucked away in a cabinet.  I'd forgotten about them, but went looking for a couple tamborines that I know are around here somewhere, and found these instead. 

The small set are mini's; about 6" long.   They were obviously used by a small child as a teether; the teeth marks are apparent.   The larger set is 13".   Both are nice, sturdy wood.   I fetched a piece of sandpaper out of the shed and sanded them down.   I'll work on these with the other items and report back !!!

Art Guitars : Painting In Progress

I've been dabbling with these abit here and there over the last two days.   It's dappling, because, since I have the paints out, I'm also working on more painted pages and 6 sets of placemats.  Needless to say, the studio is back to disaster zone .... work on this, set aside to dry and work on the next thing; set aside to dry ... over and over again times about 12.    It's alot of fun. 

So, added some poetry / writings to each of the guitar using a black permenant marker.   Then, brought out the stamps and a variety of paint colors and stamped them up.  

At this stage, I'll seperate them and work them seperately as each may take a different design angle.   So, they'll be set up on the workbench, perhaps a couple; maybe more while I decide on the rest of the individual design features that will give them unique personality. 

Art Guitars : Acrylic & Spray Paint

I picked my colors; a shade of purple for one guitar and shed red for the second.   Painted two coats on each guitar, front, back & sides.   Painted the neck and string bracket a deep blue on the red Guitar.    This takes a good bit of time as I like to let the paint dry a couple hours between coats.

Today I added Gold Oil Paint to the Neck of the Purple guitar, a little acrylic highlights to both and took outside to spray paint some stencils on both. 

Stamps are next, but will have to wait; heading to an OctoberFest event. 

Art Guitars : The Beginning

For the last couple days I've been thinking of painting, been finishing off a few things laying around, cleaning off the table tops and such.   When I finished the Crown this morning ... todays' the day.   Current thinking is I'll paint for the next week or so.  

Starting point is these two child size guitars.   Both are yard sale finds; one from 5 months or so ago and one from last weekend.    

Removed the strings, hardware, and decals.   Took outside and sanded.   It not necessary to strip them, but the current paint needs roughed up to hold the new layers of paint.    I'll start working them tomorrow.

26 more Urban Grafitti style canvas for upcoming projects

Stamped and painted my way into a terrific mess in the studio. Great fun. Generally, I pour a color and use it on various canvases until the color is depleted, then, pour another, etc. etc. etc. The only difficult part is deciding when each individual canvas is complete.

These should last me for awhile.

Painting more Canvas

The truth of it all is, I really enjoy the paint. It's my favorite. I'm also enjoying creating the cuffs .. but painting is the best. Pulled out some canvas scraps last night and measured them out to 9"x10" and 9" x 12" pieces. There's also some border strips in here.

Pulled in a good 12 bottles of paint from the garage (I like to store my paint in poweraide bottles) and painted the canvas pieces in a variety of colors. Then, took out to the back deck and applied spray paint to most. Also found a 12"x12" painted canvas in the paint box. Guess I must have taken a piece from the last batch out there to apply a final layer and forgot about it ... a surprise.

Set up the workbench to start stamping, writing and general fun for tomorrow. I hope to get a couple hours in there anyways ... family gathering here next weekend and I really have to start picking up around here instead of just hanging out in the studio pretending the house isn't covered with 1/4" of dust.

Ladies Night at the Mint Green Lounge

Spent a little time Friday and finished this project yesterday morning ... just a bit behind on getting my pictures posted.

-- Cut 7, 2"x3" pieces from the grafitti paper and adhered to the sides, one each between the bell caps.
- Attached the double sided top to the rim.
-- Brought in some black edging (some kind of lace) and glued along the top edges ... it just needed something.

Finished ... it doesn't need hanging hardware, It hangs nicely on a large push pin. This piece will not be offered for sale. I'm keeping to hang in the art/music studio with the other two tamborines and three guitars. ((I really enjoy redesigning the instruments ... hope I come across more soon).

I'll be posting this to the mint green challenge as well.

Once I ruled out fabrics, I acknowledged the closest to mint green that I could get in color would be with paint. I considered creating a paper quilt wall hanging, but then remembered the waiting Tamborine and the decision was reached.

I received this large red tamborine from a fellow free-use person early December and it's been hanging on the wall with the guitars. I leafed through my books of painted pages and since nothing struck my fancy, I'll have to start from scratch.

-- Selected a red paint for the base (to somewhat correspond with the red on the tamborine).
-- Mixed two paints to arrive at my interpretation of mint green.
-- Blended the two together onto a large sheet of book paper.
-- Marked my template.
-- Added writings with gold permenant marker
-- Added stencils in white & blue
-- Rolled on groups of yellow drops
-- Took outside and added gold spray paint circles
-- Removed page from the book and cut out template.
-- Adhered to a backup black sheet and cut out.
-- Measured and cut hand space.
-- Added wording using white & black acrylic paints

Housework willing (yuck), I'll finish putting this one together tomorrow.

Mint Green Challenge .... Hummmm ... Is there really no mint green in my life?

The FireQueen group, here on 'We Love ArtFire" is having a 'Mint Green' Challenge for 1st half of January and I'm planning on participating.

So, I wasted a good 20 minutes online trying to decide just what color is Mint Green anyway. Boy, is that one subject to interpretation !!! Just put in 'mint green' over at Etsy and you'll arrive with an ever ongoing assortment of pale greens.

Anyway, last night I got to thinking about making another hat. (Not that the first one was a great success, but what the heck, it was fun). So, hit my studio, pulled out that huge garbage container of fabrics, pulled them all out and started searching for mint green. Nothing. So, off to bed in a quandry.

Got up this morning and faced the big mess in my studio, which, of course, I'd not put away before going to bed. Then, while putting away the fabrics (read that as tossing them back into the big garbage storage container) I came across the package of 1" styrofoam balls that I'd picked up at (the hated) Michaels awhile back. Oh yea ... I was gng to try one of those fabric necklaces. Great idea ... so off to the garage to bring the 2 containers of collected scarves (mostly yard sales finds) into the studio. Well ... another big mess ... but not a single scarf with a hint of what I'd consider to be mint green. (( I did, however, put two on one of the doorhandles for an upcoming necklace).

Alas ... is there no mint green in life? Guess I'm going to have to step back and take this no quite so literally,

Placemats

Decided to give the Grafatti a try on canvas. Thought a good starting point would be to create something useable and then give it a bit of a stress test. Placemats ... with potential design beyond tomato gravy..

• Pulled out roll of canvas (literally .. kept under the bed).
• Measured and cut 4 pieces of primed canvas at 19" x 14". Pulled out the iron and ironed in the edge and the 1" border around the piece.
• Set up the sewing machine and all was not well. Needle didn' want to go through the three layers of canvas. Changed the needle to heavy and then had trouble with tension and thread breaking. So, moped around a bit and then headed off to Chili's for family dinner, where my SIL suggested that perhaps I also needed a heavier thread. UH ... did I mention that I've never been much of a sewer and I find it quite interesting that I keep getting drawn this way. (was actually looking at patterns online the other night). So, lacking heavier thread and no local store to buy thread ...
• Pulled out the iron-on hem tape and used it to handle the seams. It seemed to work okay, but if I should do this again, think I'd rather sew them.
• Brought in some red and orange paint from the shed. Think this should make a bright foundation for the start. I've not painted much on canvas before and found that it took two coats to get good coverage.

Layed it out to dry overnight.

Paint Leaf Castings

 6/20/2010:  Transferred this entry from my Personal Art Calender (Bellsouth).  These pieces still hang on our shed.   They held up remarkably well; including the paint finish.  

Paint Leaf Castings
Monday, October 7, 2002

A month back I created about a dozen leaf castings. Of these, 8 made it through with no cracks. I'm ready to being process of experimenting with paint techniques.

a) Washed up concrete leaves well, removing remaining leaf structure. (Amazingly enough, a couple of these still had the leaf intact, and leaf was still partially green!).
b) Let dry for several hours.
c) After dinner, set up paints. Applied one coat of watered down acrylic white paint to front and back.
d) Applied one coat of watered down green (two different shades; 4 leaves ea) acrylic paint.
e) Left to dry overnight. 

Paint Leaf Castings
Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Painted each of the leaves, using multiple colors and trying several different techniques.

Left to dry overnight. 

Paint Leaf Castings
Thursday, October 10, 2002

Moved leaves to table on back porch and set on several layers of newspaper. Applied two coats of sealer (Amor-All brand) to each side over the course of four hours.

No pictures today .... camera batteries are recharging.