Artsy Fartsy is back!  Maria McGuire and I took a break for a while due to scheduling and commitments but we’re playing again. Neither one of us has any less to do now (maybe even more)…She has taken on a wonderful new adventure that will be revealed soon and I am working on new workshops and articles and more soon to be revealed but Artsy Fartsy feeds our souls so we both agreed we had to make time for it.

To those new to Artsy Fartsy, it is how Maria and I art together since we live so far apart.  We pick 3 things we must use in any way in whatever kind of project we want.  The surprise is that we don’t see what each other made until the posts go live.  In honor of the fun and laughs we had with Sue Pelletier at Art Is You in Nashville this spring we picked plaster, any of Sue Pelletier’s stencils, and oil pastels.

You can also see the video directly on YouTube here.

I started with plaster gauze
on the cover of my journal.  It is a very heavy cardboard cover so it survived getting such a wet medium applied to it.  Texture, texture, texture joy!

I had a plan. I knew how I wanted it to look.  But…my handwriting was very unappealing to me (okay it felt really ugly)…My first thought was to pout, like a 3 year old.  Then I remembered it was just an Oops.  Which was followed by another Oops.  Then another.  But then I feel in love with it!

This isn’t how I expected the title to turn out- it was even better!  That is the gift of an Oops (or 2 or 3 or 4).

Have you played with plaster gauze yet?   It  creates such great texture to capture paint, Twinkling H2O’s, Posca Glitter Pens, and Stabilo pencil marks.  I think I could have played all day layering bits of color on the gauze!

I’m off to see what Maria McGuire did for her Artsy Fartsy!  If you want to check out our older Artsy Fartsy posts you can find them all by going to the categories menu on my sidebar then clicking on artsy fartsy.

Supplies Used:

Sue’s Stencil          plaster gauze       Posca Metallic

Portfolio Oil Pastels   Twinkling H2O’s   Stabilo Pencil

Linking to The Summer of Color,  Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day,and  Pink Saturday.

Seth Apter over at The Altered Page is hosting his annual hunt for buried treasure – in your old posts.  I looked back and found this!  Check out his site- so many great places to unearth creative treasure!

Excavating Paint

Alcohol dissolves paint.  When I heard that I realized it could so work to my advantage.  I used old photos that were less than desirable shots – you know the blurry, off center, etc. photos.  I have a huge stack of them.  Now some are great starting points for an art something or other.Supplies you need: rubbing alcohol, cheap paint -any colors, old hairbrush (it will not work on hair again), and an old credit card

First, prep the photos.  I did a whole bunch at one time so I’d have lots to play with later.   My first layer was purple.  Let it dry.

Add a layer of orange.  Let it dry.

Add a layer of pink.  Let it dry.

Add a layer of green.  Let it dry.

Add a layer of blue.  Let it dry.

Get the idea?  Well, I found out that 5 layers was a bit much.  I really only saw the top three colors.  Next time I’ll only do 3…

Second, spray alcohol on the painted photos.  I am working on a gesso’d journal page because this gets messy and I love the look of the smeared paint.  Let the alcohol sit for 15-30 seconds.  Add more at any time if needed.

Third, scrap the paint with the hairbrush bristles.  This gets it moving nicely.  It will start to get sloppy and runny!  Yeah!

Fourth, add more alcohol if it starts to dry up or the paint is not sloppy.  Then, scrape it with the credit card.  The paint comes right off.

I clean off the credit card by wiping that wonderful paint goo on the journal page (see below).  That way not a drop of paint is wasted!