Hello, I’m back. First galaxy pour

Well, house moves, ’nuff said. I packed paints in oct18 ready for move in nov, and from then there was delay after delay.

Finally i have most paints unpacked and am painting again. It was weird at first, I made some real messes but this little galaxy pour I’m happy with. Its 12 x 12 inches ( or maybe 10 x 10…) and had dreid really well. Too soon for varnish, but that really brings out the colours. I’ll probably resin, as that is fab with metallic paints.
I watched so many videos over the last 18 months both paint and resin and i’ve a book full of ideas..
Here paints are mixed 70% flotrol and 30% paint, plus water. I’m using royal and langernickel heavy body paints mostly, the blue is daler rowney metallic blue. I just love that colour. The teal is the DR blue mixed with a bright Lucas green.

Happy Birthday Liquitex

65 Years since they brought out their first water based acrylic paint. I imagine it was regarded as a quirk by many oil artists, galleries, traditionalists. In some ways the art world embracers new ideas, but in others we can be oddly stuck to old, traditional ways.
I was thinking recently when there was a facebook debate about the 30% max water “rule” thats much quoted. When i first discovered acrylics back on early 2000’s I used them like oils, very thick, and also like watercolours in huge washes of colour and layers of thin glazes to get the effect i wanted. Sometimes having no formal training helps – you just get in and go for it. I’ve still got some of those early works and there’s no flaking, no adhesion issues, although people fixed on the 30% max water mutter darkly about those. You lose strength of colour buts that’s all, acrylics work well as watercolour if you want to use them that way.
Anyway, take a look at what 65 years has brought.
https://www.liquitex.com/us/our-story/since-1955/?dm_i=4QA6,ADTZ,G86A2,14OYO,1

Getting closer. meanwhile, home made alcohol inks.

My garage conversion to art studio is progessing – slowly – but getting there. The sliding double doors are on, most of the walls now insulated, ceiling still needs plasterboard and radiators putting in, but at last the old metal door is off and hopefully next week should see the new door and window in 😉
Browsing pintrest this morning i found a link to alcohol inks. I love those but only have a few as they are pricey. And sadly my pockets are skimpy….but this makes new ink from old pens. And of course that brings in my reuse mantra. the plastic casing still can’t be recycled but at least i’m getting more of the ink out – and like paint, that stuff can take a heavy toll on the environment so getting every little bit used makes me feel better.
I’ve not tried this yet – my art stuff including the alcohol i use is still packed – nearly 18 months now, (doesn’t your heart bleed for me – just a tiny bit) and i only saw this about 15 mins ago, but I think its a terrific idea. I’ve a pot of sharpies beside my pc, i use them alot so now its going to be home made alcohol inks…
Did you know too that paint pens can be rejuventated by a little water in the main body? I’ve not tried that yet either but given the price of Poscas, my favourites, i’m going to try that when one runs out.
Here’s the link where i saw the article

Homemade Alcohol Inks

Back in new year I said……but which year ;-)

Well, I optimistically hoped to be back painting at the beginning of the new year. My house purchase was delayed and delayed but finally went through in Feb.
So renovations started and….well, if it could go wrong it has. plumbing including out to road replaced, floors resurfaced- new skirting, heating renewed ( boiler and radiators), electrics renewed, wallpaper glued on with some industrial gunge that took off chunks of plaster so walls replastered, some windows replaced, new front door, ramps front and rear, new hard flooring to hall, living room and kitchen, carpet to bedrooms, new kitchen ( I’m doing backsplash and worktops in resin……), opened kitchen to lounge, block kitchen door, create cupboard in kitchen, knock existing loo and bathroom onto one and create wet room….and here we are mid Aug and work is still continuing. Boiler didn’t work and was replaced, interior doors sent back, freak summer storm took a couple of ridge tiles off so water leaked through onto new plastered walls 😦 . A host of minor things like front door sent without keys, and they couldn’t just send keys, nope, whole door had to go back to be replaced, shower thermostat broke, gas pipe behind living room fire taped up with electrical tape !! Lucky we decided to scrap fire. Builder did say on first day he had really bad headache, prob carbon monoxide fumes as house been closed for days…we have a carbon monoxide alarm now .
And you’ll note – no mention of my lovely garage conversin to art studio. I have the wide sliding door for side, the door and window for front, part the insulation done, but the plans for getting that finished have gone the way of so much else, and its currently part done but with no end date yet. Thats why there’s been no new posts, cos there’s been no new work 😦 I haven’t painted since last Oct, when my paints were packed. Slowly house is coming together and i’ve been “camping out” speding the past couple weelends there and doing some gardening ( hoiking out weeds and dead stuff, trying to cut grass to decent length, weedkiller on ground elder, brambles and nettles)
I keep telling myself its all good, as at least when it is finished I know nothing major can go wrong as its all been replaced! I am so looking forward to painting, getting garden nice, and just enjoying my new home.
Back in new year i optimisitically said, well I guess I didn’t specify which new year….

So THAT’S why normal service hasn’t yet been resumed 🙂 Soon I hope.

More geodes. Lilac and blues

I’m having fun with these, learning all the while.

This one is blue and lilac, heavy on the blue…. I’m trying some different glass here for the some of crystals and the addition of paints and additives to create an opal effect in parts. This one is 18 x 6 inches and for sale at £96 inc UK mainland postage. I can post abroad for additional charge.

Similar to the previous one but this one is 10 x 12 inches, and has some gold glittery lines separating the colours. Lots of sparkle, and as with the previous one its done in layers of resin to give a very 3d effect. Each time I do one of these it gives me more ideas to try and I’m already thinking of the next one. I can do these in pretty much any colour if you want to commission one, pricing is dependent on size. this one at 10 x 12 inches comes out at £88 inc P&P to mainland UK. Postage abroad is extra.

Quick video, suspended pouring

Just a quick video, i didn’t intend to record but then part way through thought it might be interesting to see a bit of how it happened, so quickly picked up my phone. Of course that meant i couldn’t show how i tipped it as I was one handed but you get the idea of how it was created at least.
What i wanted was those lovely drip effects you get where paint drips slowly off the edge of a painting. Some of those are so gorgeous.
I suspended my paint above an old work, and let it drip through a hole in the base. I had a little too much black I think, it does tend to take over, but as I was using string colours, a dioxazine purple and a viridian type green I thought it would be OK. I also used gold and white. I didn’t achieve what I wanted but after tipping I’m happy with the result.
I’ll do this again, have played with this effect before and though each time I never get the effect I aim for I have fin and get some interesting works….BTW its eldest granddaughter who’s the pot noodle fan and keeps me supplied. I also purloined a load of plastic cups from a recent christening. #nothingwasted 😉
Finished painting, its about 10 x 16 in i think.

 

Playing with resin

I’m playing with resin, covering an old tray that’s had fluid acrylics poured over, and been left to cure for three weeks, and trying out some jewellery moulds. My first time trying jewellery, and i learned that i put waaay to much mica powder in, thought i’d added just a little but clearly too much. Next time 😉

 

 

The dry resin, took a bit longer than i thought, were still tacky after 24 hours and i thought I’d cocked up the mixing but another 12 hours and they were fine. I’ve ordered a few more moulds now and some caps for the pendants 😉 I had fin with this and learned from it and for me that’s the primary purpose in art.
As ever if you’ve anything you’d like me to try, just leave a comment, if I’ve got the stuff – and I’ve amassed quite a lot over the years – I’ll give it a go.

Watermarking

I never watermark images but a recent pinterest thread got me thinking. I wouldn’t do it for ones on an artsale site but for general uploading i might try to remember.
you don’t need fancy expensive software and as a tech novice It took me less than five mins to open irfanview, work out how to do it and save the image. Its that easy. now remembering to do it…….

As I’ve not ever done it and i have minimal tech skills i took a look at what i have already. I use Irfanview for editing, its a free editing programme. I created a watermark by opening a new image, selecting text and writing my name. changed font and text size, and made background transparent. Its easy – its all in the boxes to check. then saved in my pictures file. Then i uploaded an image, went to Edit, selected add overlay/watermark, chose where i wanted it ( bottom left, as in non abstracts i sign on bottom right) then saved as new file, i added the w to signify watermark. ( I number mine so this is A59w)

My first geode style pour

I’d finished this 20 x 20 inch canvas a few weeks back and was intending to just give a resin finish to it…but you know what happens! I though I’d add some crushed glass, then decided to add some lines of glitter geode style and suddenly there it was, my first geode.
I’ve learned a lot, the copper, brown and gold colours ran, I don’t mind here, but for future i think i’d run some silicon supports first to let them keep the shape better. The glass was fun, tinted it with golden paints, sadly i stupidly reused a pot for the gold that has some still damp white in so that affected the colour a bit.
I did sprinkle some diamond glass chips over the surface while damp but most of it sunk 😦 I’m still trying to work that stuff. Varnish over and you lose the sparkle, don’t varnish and bits of razor sharp glass can and does drop off. I cut myself on this painting hanging it, not sure if it was just a sharp bit of glass or the diamond glass, but my thumb was bleeding well 😉

 

detail

detail

 

Angel wings, or not! and “What if I …..”experiment

Seen those lovely angel wings type pours? Yep, so have I and I wanted to try after watching Loads of videos….Sadly it wasn’t a success, but did my usual tinkering, swiping and adding and ended up with something entirely different but which I’m happy with. when I know a painting is a fail I like to try “what if?” so ill add stuff, swipe, blow, spray – anything to change the painting  knowing it doesn’t matter what happens as i can’t make it worse. Its a great way to try out new ideas without worrying about results.

the final dry image. I actually like it now – though the angel wings were a fail the tinkering had a positive result.