What I've Been Up To

Well, life's been interesting! School is very busy (new schedule, less plan time, extra class). Then early last week I got a new computer and have been very busy learning how to (try to) use Windows Vista. Interesting to say the least. Putting the old files I want onto the new computer is time-consuming, especially the music files. Educational, but a major time drain.

Today I finally got a chance to have a ketchup day....you know, ketchup with the laundry, ketchup with the emails, ketchup with various other tasks I've been ignoring, all the while loading up the computer and learning how to make the peripherals talk to it. Well, today's artistic objective was very simple--Do exercise 2 for the Acrylic Artists class.

I had two techniques to try. One was using cheesecloth with the acrylic paints, and the other was using string. Step one was to choose canvas boards and paint backgrounds. I decided on phthalo green/ultramarine for the cheesecloth background and micaceous iron oxide for the string background. I let them dry for awhile (while running up and down the stairs to do laundry, help with grilling, walk the dogs, rearrange CDs, change CDs on the computer, etc.). I then laid a double layer of cheesecloth diagonally across the green/blue canvas. I tried using a blunt-ended brush to pounce the copper paint onto the cheesecloth stencil-style. The brush bristles were too flexible to do a good job with that. I switched to a damp sponge and liked the results better. It was hard to get the paint even, so I didn't try to at all and went for a variegated look. Then I peeled the cheesecloth off and set it (the cheesecloth) to dry (to be cut up later and used for something else). I set the canvas aside to dry too. Time to switch to the micaceous iron oxide canvas. I had decided to use iridescent pearl and copper on that one (because I thought they would make a really nice contrast with the background). I dug out some cotton string I had saved. Well, actually it was cotton yarn, the kind that is thicker, then thinner, then thicker again. I poured a dollop of copper paint onto my impromptu palette and tried to decide how to get a nice thick coating on the string. I ended up using my fingers, which gave me the bonus of having nice coppery fingers. Then I draped the paint-y yarn on my canvas and pondered what to do next. I felt that I wanted a strong paint impression on the canvas to accentuate the contrast between the background color and the copper, so I took a piece of paper towel and patted the string down. This gave the bonus of printing little string echoes on either side of it because I did not change paper towels between pats. Cool! I did three applications with copper, then switched to new string and did three applications with the pearl. After that I set it to dry (and the strings too, to be used later for something else. I ended up looking at this canvas several times later and thinking I might add something to it, but as usual I didn't want to detract from the paint patterns. I am so happy with this one (even though it did not require any great technical skill); I just like the way it looks.

Then I went back to look at the cheesecloth canvas. After a lot of contemplation, I decided to take another two layers of cheesecloth and glue it onto the canvas on the opposite diagonal from the original one. I used gloss medium to glue it down by pouncing medium onto all the edges (I left the middle loose). The corners stuck off the canvas, which was a look I really liked. It took that a long time to dry because I used a lot of medium, probably too much really.

After some more CD/computer/laundry/dogs/daughter/grill/chocolate/Diet Dr. Pepper, I sat down to do something more. This time I sprayed the cheesecloth with a fairly heavy spritzing of water from a spray bottle (to make the paint run). Then I painted ultramarine blue and copper over it in abstract curves and dots. I let it set a bit, then sprayed it with water again to spread the paint out more. Now it is drying. I don't think I'm done with it really, but I am not sure yet what my next move is.