More stencils and some prints

I did a couple more stencils at home. This time I used special finger sponge daubers (which I did not realise I had until I came across them whilst looking for something else!!!) and a stamp pad which has a rainbow of different colours. I think they look better than using paint. I was especially pleased with the cockerel.
We did handprinting yesterday. Images were incised into polystyrene tiles using a kebab stick and then printed using a hand printing press....I want one!
Betty also showed us some interesting techniques using lutrdur (which is like a stiff vilene), bondaweb and gold foil. She kindly gave us samples of each to play with at home. I will post the results sometime. I think Betty's courses should carry a Health Warning......to the effect that even more of the time and money which you do not have will be taken!!!!! My head is fair buzzing with ideas. I have recently been doing more mixed media/collage paintings and all these new things Betty shows us gives me so many ideas. And who needs sleep!!!!

White wall exhibition

My friend, Eileen, currently has an exhibition of her paintings at Poole Library, Poole, Dorset. She is a very talented amateur artist painting mainly wildlife pictures but also landscapes, flowers and still life and will accept commissions. An example of her work is shown above although this picture is not included in the exhibition. Well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. All of the paintings are for sale and are very reasonably priced. She can be contacted at E.Cripps@sky.com

Stencils

This week we cut stencils using special waxed paper. Once the drawing had been made on the waxed paper it had to be cut out using a craft knife which was time consuming and a bit uncomfortable on the index finger. I did my first stencilling using acrylic paint and a brush but it did not turn out too well so the one shown above was done using small pieces of sponge and acrylic paint. I have got another piece of waxed paper from Betty to use to make some stencils in my "tree" book. I have some ideas about how...possibly to depict oak timbers in Tudor buildings.
The other picture is of a papier mache ammonite that I made using a real ammonite as the template. The colour is various pearlescent acrylic paints rubbed on to the dry papier mache.

Taking it Further Challenge

For the New Year I have decided to join the Taking it Further Challenge. Basically, at the beginning of each month you are given a concept and a colour scheme which you work on through the month. There are more details at http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/
Rather that include my work on this project on this site I have started another blog Towards the Light at http://towardthelight.wordpress.com/