Slowly we are moving through Ben Okri’s poem and this month we have reached the words: “Each one of us is a powerful being”. It made me think about the situation we have found ourselves in during the past year and a half. There were times I felt far from powerful as many decisions were taken from us such as where we could go, whom we could see and what we could do. It was hard to imagine that we were powerful. But we retained our power in the way that matters most. We could still think about what we wanted and we could still practice our art in whatever way suited us. For me the enforced isolation period has been one of artistic growth, and of heretofore unheard off productivity in all my different art forms such as photography, quilting art, and of course mixed media and art journaling. Other thoughts about power also slipped in apart from the poem, such as female empowerment and flower power. I ended up with a page that I very much like. Hope you do too.
Here is the tutorial:
1. Take two facing pages of 8 x 11.5”. Spread out 4 different colours of paint (I used PaperArtsy’s Fresco ones) on a large gelli plate, using a brayer and make marks in the paint using a small patterned roller. Take prints on both pages, adding paint if required.
2. With different colours on the gelli plate and putting stencil Wheels on top take partial prints on both pages.
3. Repeat step 3, using white paint on your gelli plate and stencil Wheel Spokes Set 2.
4. Cut out a large variety of flower images from magazines. Take 2 sheets of paper and with a pencil mark out the silhouette (including the circles) from the large stencil of the December 2017 StencilClub using one side of the stencil on one sheet and the reverse on the other sheet. Glue down the flower images on the marked out areas, going slightly outside the lines. When the area is completely covered, remark the silhouettes using the stencil and a black marker. Cut out the silhouettes.
5. Give
the silhouettes a layer of matte medium Using the large
stencil of the December 2017 Club again, put it back on the silhouettes and
apply gold Radiant Gel (from ColourArte) through the circles with a palette
knife.
6. Using Wheels spray random areas of the two background pages with gold Perfect Pearls Mist (called Sunflower Sparkle), and then glue on the two silhouettes as shown.
7. Put the two pages right next to each other and put stencil Four Sacred Hearts on top so that the image featuring the sword is half on one page and half on the other. Stencil this image using a palette knife and gold Radiant Gel as in step 6.
8. Once
dry colour parts of this sword image
with watercolour markers and outline with a permanent black marker.
9. Outline the circles on the pages with water-soluble markers (I used Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks) and smudge with a wet finger.
10. Do the same with the gold circles.
11. Cut out words to from Ben Okri’s quote from magazines, glue to the pages as shown, and outline as in step 10.
12. Stencil eyes to the silhouettes using black paint and stencil Chinese Garden Buddha Small.
13. Outline
some areas on the pages as desired, using permanent black and white markers
14. Edge the pages with a permanent red stamp pad.
You do such wonderful layering, Frieda. Love these pages!
ReplyDelete