Art du Jour 58

Just before I went to bed last night I took a little stretched canvas and a couple of hard plastic stencils and some gesso and a pallet knife and mucked about applying texture with raised bits randomly placed.

If that was the beginning of a novel I believe it might be a contender for worst first sentence ever. But if you’ve ever worked with the above mentioned stuff I expect it made some sense.

The method to my madness was knowing that thick gesso would take a long time to dry, and sleeping through that process seemed like a great plan. In the morning, on all the dry bumpy areas I rubbed distress ink with an upside down raised stamp pad.

I am so happy with how this turned out! The predominant colour is rook red, and you can still see the canvas texture in a lot of places. I resisted the (always strong) urge to stamp bugs and butterflies everywhere.  I spray clear acrylic sealer on these things outside and let them dry out there, running the risk of real bugs getting stuck on them. That spray is probably lethal so who knows what I’m killing in the name of art. Hopefully not myself.

There is something very warm and relaxing about these colours, with all the brown, moss green and gold.

Anyway!  I’m done and calling it a success.  Happy mellow Tuesday.