Metal Looks

By know you all know how much I enjoyed Carol Nelson's workshop and what a fan of hers I am.  Not only do I admire her talent but her fearlessness.  She just goes for it.  She is not afraid to fail and go on to the next thing.  Most of the time we are too intimated to stray from all the set rules.  Play and take risks should be a sign in all our "play" spaces.
This is another technique Carol showed us.  I loved doing this one because it not only used found objects but made them look like they had been around for ages.
For this exercise use anything you have from your garage.  I used washers, paperclips, a button and  some old gutter screening.  I glued down the found objects with gel medium and the screening I used as a stencil and spread some gel on and let dry until it was hard.  Once the glue was set and the medium dry I covered it with heavy duty aluminum foil.  I glued the foil in the back with gel medium then burnished around the objects with my finger.  Once all the shapes were outlined I spread a mixture of watered down acrylic paints till I got the finish I wanted.  This look is very "Steam punk", which I love.
Donna Vines

Steam punk
 

Trees

After doing some more experiments from the Carol Nelson workshop I decided to put all of my paraphernalia away for awhile and go back to oils. As much as I enjoy all the techniques I have learned I feel I need a break from all the choices and just get back to basics for awhile.
The last thing I worked on, but have not quite finished, is a tree collage. I used some of the red resin paper treated with the rust activator and some collage papers I had. Originally I used the rust paper with the imprint to represent soil and some colorful collage papers as the foliage. As I was working on it I dropped it onto the floor and saw it from a different angle. It now looked like Fall, with all the colorful leaves on the ground and the dead foliage still on the trees. Hmmm, you decide.

Spring?

 



Fall?

Donna Vines