Half way through another month seems a fitting time to update you on the 12 in 12 project.
In a book dedicated to the project, every month focuses on just one color in the color-wheel. April was the month for blue, and these are the previously unposted April pages…
detail here….
This brings us to May, and shades of blue/green colors I’m naturally drawn to!
I shall post these pages so far in a bit!
Serendipity [noun] “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.”
I think this sums up so much of what I do. Yesterday’s post about recycling was a tangent I wandered down when thinking about how the collage pieces I make come into being.
Paper is readily recyclable these days (indeed it’s often recycled when it’s ‘new’) but I like to get every last ounce of use out of it. Once it’s been printed on (both sides) with info that’s no longer needed, it retires to a life in art.
Images and pictures, blocks of color or gradients, maps, poetry, lyrics, photos, scanned doodles and sketchbook pages, mish-mashed up in photoshop, I let fate take over and set the printer running. And if there are gaping spaces left, the page gets turned around and over-printed again. Serendipity occurs!
The ones that don’t happen into something immediately usable cover my work table to take on new nuances with splashed color, and as testing grounds for paints and inks and stampings. Or used to soak up excess color from dying fabrics and threads (I think this must be where the great paper-dying project originated… one idea bears fruit and blossoms into new ideas and schemes and badly mixed metaphors!)
Y’huh, I know it’s Tuesday… but don’t we all get those weeks that won’t kick-start properly?
Ok, so I’m up n running now! Reflecting on the latest page-a-day pages….
I took advantage of Satuday’s sunshine to photograph my pages in the garden (reminded as I type this as the rain pours outside my window!), so Saturday’s page with the typewritten hi, was only just begun. Just as soon as the lighting conditions permit I’ll bring you up to speed with the latests 😀
I’m so enjoying the page a day project, and the 12 in 12 (updates on that one soon) but it has meant that not so much art has been going on outside of the sketchbooks.
So I decided to venture out of my papery comfort zone and onto canvas. This is a first for me! It’s still a work in progress, but here’s how it’s starting out…
Being a deep canvas I want to incorporate the edges. With no particular plan I started out with acrylic glazes….
Starting out with collage bits the trial layouts begin then gluing commences!
Bit by bit…
More glaze to bring the bits together,
And some dyed scrim for a bit of texture
More paint, blending some of the raw edges together
More layers
More dyed scrim
And doodles in thread
I’ll post more as it develops, but so far I’m pleased with the way it’s coming together.
Y’know that sticky mesh tape stuff you stick plaster board together with? Yeh, sure you do! Here it is…
It’s meant for healing up wounds in walls n ceilings, but I have a much better use for it.
Made from fibreglass it’s super-tough and water resistant, and the tape has just the right ickiness to it. If you’ve seen my last few posts you’ll know where I’m going with this…
It makes for excellent griddy stenciling and painty fingers!
Close ups….
With the rest of the alphabet stencils cut (ok… v, w, x, y, z aren’t done yet… it’s a bit fiddly and I wanted to get on and play!) today’s page is all about sat sat saturday…
Layering up the letters, positive and negative cut-outs
Using a mix of acrylics, glazes, watercolors, gouache, pastels and charcoal to see how they work out
Through the pages of the recent weeks I’ve made some unexpected discoveries:
Everyday I look forward to my bit of time set aside for play, there are similarities, sure, but everyday is individually distinct from it’s neighbours.
The ‘no rules’ rule liberates any planning, expectations, or regrets. By photographing the interim stages they are captured, so when they vanish under another layer of something-totally-else, I still have a memory of them to refer back to.
The properties of one small detail can infuse into other parts of the page. A textured paper inspired these scored lines…
Sometimes new characters drift through my subconscious and out the end of the pen. They reside here, waiting to return in a future idea. Or not. It doesn’t matter!
The adage less is more does not apply. The contents of the page unconsciously reflect the content of the day, and some days are bright, loud, bustling and care not for a controlled, contrived design and color scheme. They are just pieced together with what is at hand.
The possibilities ARE limitless!
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