StencilGirl® Products and Concrete!

Hello from British Columbia, Canada.

My name is Donna Stewart and I am a concrete artist. I have been using StencilGirl® stencils for a while now in all different stages of a painting and am hoping today to demonstrate some of those ideas. I also love that fact that other artists have designed these stencils and feel happy about supporting them.

In all honesty most of the time I work instinctively but for the purpose of this blog I am going to show you three different ways that I use StencilGirl® Products and concrete.

Chakras have been on my mind a lot so I thought why not try to capture my rendition of that with concrete and acid stains. I know that I want to do layers of texture and color so I start with a plan. 

StencilGirl® stencils I'm using:
Art Party 
Photos
Dancing Lights 
Orchard 
Mixed Grid  
Zippy  
Sweet Bundles  

Now it’s time to put the material on the board. I have an 8 x 24 birch panel and today I am using a mortar mix. I apply the mortar with putty knife trying to keep the level fairly even.

Once I get my main layer of mortar on I decide that I want the base to have just a hint of texture. So while it is still wet using the stencils randomly at this point I spray a little water onto the mortar and very lightly trowel the stencil into the mortar. The lightest trowel will make amazing texture.

For today I am done and I will let it dry overnight. Viola … now dry, it’s looking great.

Now I am ready to add some color. Even though I want the painting to be vertical I am going to spray the acid and water based stains in a horizontal so I can get the layer look I am after. I use a different color with a different stencil for each layer and try to get the colors of the Chakras… 

Once finished I decide I need more depth of color so after neutralizing the acid stains and letting them dry I add more mortar using the stencils in the same order I sprayed the color, only putting the new mortar in the center of the painting. 

Once dry I want to add color to the latest raised layer of mortar… same order of color as I used on the background. From bottom to top... the colors used are Cajun Red, Sandstone, Desert Amber, Moss Green, Deep Blue, Cajun Red and Walnut, and finally Black. All acid and water based stains come from Direct Colours and Brickform.

To finish the top of the painting I use a darker mortar and Ripples of Imagination.

Because a darker blue color and a purple color are hard to achieve with acid stains I added a small amount of paint on the raised mortar to try to highlight that part of the painting. 

Ready to seal everything, the colors and the texture will really come alive.

So there you have it concrete, StencilGirl® stencils and a new Chakra painting. 

I have to say thank you for allowing me to show my process and all the different ways you can use the stencils. 

Thanks for having me, happy creating to all of you wonderful creators out there. Cheers!

Donna Stewart 

My website is donnastewart-art.com

My email is donna@donnastewart-art.com

My Instagram donnastewartart

My Facebook is art by Donna Stewart