Monthly Archives: November 2017

Holiday freebie for you – faux turquoise technique tutorial!

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I may not have time to give workshops right now (the next one will be in January), but I can still teach you a few things! Here’s a lesson freebie – a cool Faux-Turquoise technique.

While working on a commissioned assemblage, I realized how often I use the painted faux-turquoise finish that I developed several years ago. It works on almost all my mixed-media surfaces – clay, paper, cradle board, canvas.

Here’s your step-by-step tutorial on how I do this finish. Feel free to change it up and experiment with your own variations. There’s no secret here, just simple materials and techniques that give good results in an uncomplicated way. It’s super fun, too.

Step One: Assemble Materials

Rarely do I specify specific brands, but in this case, these three acrylic paints work best in combination of all the ones I’ve tried for this particular technique.

You will also need a wide-ish flat brush (about 1″), a graphite pencil, a terrycloth washrag or studio rag, a white colored pencil (optional), and something to paint on. For this demonstration, I chose  4×6″ piece of archival mat board. You’ll need a water container to clean your brush, too.

You don’t need a lot of complicated materials for this

Step Two: Make you mark

I often have my workshop participants open up to their work by doing some scribbling on the substrate – you can always gesso over it, but it keeps them from being intimidated by a white surface. If they don’t know what to scribble, I ask them to scribble what they had for breakfast! In the demo below, I just did some random markmaking with a graphite pencil. It added a bit of subtle texture to the surface, too.

Make the space yours by claiming it with markmaking

Step Three: Slap on the base coat

Paint right over those marks you made with a coat of Aqua Green acrylic, being generous. Use random strokes, x-strokes in every direction. You don’t want to leave thick texture, but yo do want some slightly raised areas.

A nice coat of aqua green painted randomly on the matboard

Step Four: More marks

Let this coat sit until it is sticky but not dry, then go back in with your graphite pencil and make more light marks on the surface.

Step Five: Lighten it up

Add some of the Matte White acrylic to the Aqua Green to make a paler tint of turquoise. Brush it randomly over about one-third of the surface. Play with the proportions.

Matte White with a bit of Aqua Green

Step Six: Press and Lift

While the lighter tint is still wet, Press your terrycloth rag straight down onto the surface to lift some of the lighter tint in areas. This leaves very stone-like patches of light and dark.

Press the cloth straight down, then lift.

Step Seven: Adding the Azo Gold

Take your bottle of Quinacridone Nickle Azo Gold and drop several blobs of paint on the surface. It will look very dark and slightly gross, but don’t worry – Quin Gold is extremely transparent and will make a lovely glaze in the next step.

Blobs of Quin Gold dropped on the surface

Step Eight: Blob-dabbing

Using the same terrycloth rag (which will never be the same again), dab the blobs firmly to spread them and create texture.

Dabbed-out blobs of Quin Gold

Step Nine: Light blending and marking

Continue to add light marks, and do a bit of blending with the rag, but use a light touch.

More scratches and marks

Step Ten: Finish with dry-brushing

To veil and push back all of the color variations and textures, dry-brush a final coat of aqua green over the surface. You can see here that the right half has been dry-brushed and the left half has not yet been brushed. If you build up this layer slowly, you can control what is revealed and what is concealed. “Dry-brushing” means just that – adding a little bit of paint to a dry brush and stroke it lightly over the surface. After this step, let the whole thing dry. And go wash your brush!

Final dry-brush coat

Step Eleven: Tah-Dah!

You can see in the close-up how the painted finished mimics the real stuff in texture and color. As I said, this surface is archival mat board, but you can try this technique on anything acrylic paint works with.

I can see it on a mirror frame, for example, with copper nailheads all around it, or perhaps covering the top of a wooden box. Or how about a turquoise ornament for a Christmas tree, Southwestern style?

Here are a couple more photos of the faux-turquoise mat board cut up into smaller sections, and also a small adornment with copper tape for a collage or pin.

collage adornment

Cut sections of faux-turquoise matboard for mixed media

I hope you enjoy this technique. If you try it, let me know how you use it!

And thanks, as always, for reading SHARDS!

 

 

 

Nectar and Ambrosia

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Part of the fun of Thanksgiving is remembering all the food that we liked as kids, the stuff that came out only at holidays. I loved to watch my mother make “Ambrosia,” which is a Southern tradition. According to Alabama Chanin, “Ambrosia began appearing in cookbooks in the late 1800s when citrus fruit became more prevalent in markets across the country. These early recipes were very simple, usually including only orange slices, coconut, and sugar layered in a glass dish.”

Mother would spend a long time peeling, de-seeding, and sectioning orange segments, which made the kitchen smell wonderful. It was labor-intensive, for sure. She added coconut and pecans and Maraschino cherries. A bonus for me was getting to sip the juice from the Maraschino cherries after she had drained them – turns your tongue red and gives you a major sugar rush.

I’m making a shortcut version of Ambrosia this year, and so far, it looks pretty good. I have all of the fruit ready and will add the rest of the ingredients, including the coconut,  tomorrow morning. It’s pretty already!

Shortcut Ambrosia in progress – trust the process!

Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try – and if you can get to the grocery store today without losing your sanity.

Ingredients:

1 (8 oz.) tub of whipped topping, thawed
1 cup sour cream
1 (20 oz.) can pineapple tidbits, drained well
1 (15 oz.) can mandarin orange segments, drained well
1 cup red or green seedless grapes, sliced in half
1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1 (10 oz.) jar of maraschino cherry halves, drained very well (optional)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Then you just mix the whipped topping (think Cool Whip), the coconut, sour cream and marshmallows together and fold it in with the fruit. It’s neither huate cuisine or health food, but hey – it’s a Thanksgiving tradition!

The “nectar” part of this post is Almond Tea, which showed up at a lot of Southern holiday parties. It’s a gusssied-up version of Sweet Tea, and it’s non-alcoholic so kids can have some.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons instant iced tea powder
1 cup white sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 (12 ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond extract

Directions
In a 1 gallon container, mix together the instant tea powder and sugar. Pour in the boiling water and lemonade concentrate, and mix well. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Fill container the rest of the way with cold water. Stir and serve over ice, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Actually, you can just add a little almond extract to regular iced tea and it tastes great, different and kind of exotic.

I mentioned the Alabama Chanin Journal earlier – if you want an imaginative, feel-good source of information and inspiration, check out Alabama’s site and read about her beautiful and sustainable food, clothing and other makings. Slow Cloth founder Elaine Lipson introduced me to this journal. It’s a favorite.

Finally, if you’re still in an “easy recipe” mood, take this link to my favorite Cranberry Jalapeno Relish that I published here in 2014.

I am so grateful to all of you for being SHARDS readers – Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The gift of Crystal Bridges

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

You’ve probably been told by lots of your friends, just back from vacation, about some place or other that you absolutely HAVE to visit, right? Well, add my name to that list. You absolutely HAVE to visit Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. No kidding. It will blow you away.

Trinity University alumna Alice Walton of the Walmart fortune founded Crystal Bridges as a gift to the American people, and she did a spectacular job. The museum opened on 11/11/2011, and was celebrating its 6th birthday the weekend we visited. Bentonville is located in Northwest Arkansas, and you can fly in to their new airport from almost anywhere (Ms. Walton was instrumental in that airport, as well).

The art collection itself is spectacular, extensive and priceless. We asked out guide, Deputy Director Sandy Edwards, how much it cost, and she said “Alice doesn’t discuss the cost of a gift.” Chronologically arranged, the works span five centuries in three buildings constructed across a spring-deepened ravine.

Here are a few pictures I took that show the diversity of the collection – you can find many more online. Take this link to explore the collection.

Sculpture by Marisol

George Segal’s Men in Bread Line – he is the second figure

Children learning about early American landscape

The Indian and the Lily, George de Forest Brush

Evan Penny sculpture – “Old Self” – this self-portrait includes the artist’s whiskers embedded in the sculptural material

My friend Victoria photographs a huge fiber art piece by Ghada Amar

Hidden in Amar’s work are embroidered faces of women in distress

The architecture itself is nothing short of miraculous. The site is a difficult one, to say the least, and we loved the story of how Israeli architect Moshe Safdie partnered with Alice Walton to make this project a reality. If you have a few minutes, watch this video. You’ll get a feel for the personalities of both Walton and Safdie.

 

Here are a few more photos that show the architectural features.

Inside connects to outside visually – almost all of the outside walls are glass

The view across the lagoon

Art at Crystal Bridges does not stop at the walls. All along the trails are sculptures and structures. This is a photo James Turrell’s Skyspace installation.

Here is is from the inside – Bill and our friend Peter Jennings enjoyed the headed seats on a cold Arkansas morning. The circular opening in the top allows for contemplation, and at dawn and sunset, there is a light show along the walls that transforms the space.

Bill and Peter meditate about the Astros’ win at the World Series

Skyspace opening from inside

 

Obviously, I could go on and on about how impressed and delighted we all were with Crystal Bridges. There’s the Great Hall, the cool Gift Shop, the Frank Lloyd Wright House, the Chihuly in the Forest exhibit. But I don’t want you to feel like you’re trapped at a friend’s house, watching an interminable slide show of their vacation.

Just know that I loved this place for its art and architecture, and its special connection to the land. You will, too. Crystal Bridges really is a gift.

Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture – I love this place!!

 

 

 

 

Free-for-all encaustic inspirations by Nancy Crawford

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 What artist doesn’t get frustrated when other obligations keep you out of the studio?? Argh. Lately, I’ve been living vicariously, stealing a few minutes on Pinterest or You Tube to take mental notes on what I’ll do when I have time to get back to serious art-making.

One of my “band-aids” for frustration is Nancy Crawford and her wonderful short YouTube videos on encaustic techniques. She is as generous with her methods as Jane Davies is with her painting videos.

Take a look at Nancy’s work. I absolutely love her style and the way she layers the wax. Of course, anything that involves collage and beeswax is manna to my soul!

Nancy Crawford

Nancy Crawford

Here’s a link to her You Tube Channel

Nancy’s work inspired me to teach a workshop last year called Wax and Words. I modified her techniques a bit with stencils, stamps and scribbles – the results were super! I need to revive that workshop this winter at the new Little Studio. All I need is more time to do it!

If you just want a sample of Nancy’s great tips and have two minutes, here are three quickies to get you inspired when you don’t have time to do the work yourself.

Encaustic Technique 13 Transparentizing Paper

Encaustic Technique 12 Hot Wax Stylus

Encaustic Technique 7 Metallic Powder

Hope you’re enjoying this cooler weather in South Texas – it’s almost beginning to feel like Thanksgiving!

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Gratitude for art and community

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Yesterday afternoon was tinged with disbelief as news of yet another incident of violence, this time very close to home, began to spread. We were at the San Antonio Art League & Museum welcoming people to  the annual Members Invitational in which four artists who were finalists for SAALM’s Artist of the Year were invited as a group to show their work. As I talked with people, I thought a lot about the power of art to communicate and heal.

Every artist in the exhibit had statements of joy or hope or peace, expressed in his or her own medium and voice. Heartfelt thanks to Rachel Edwards Ridder, whose fiber works of artists’ hands celebrate life-long creativity, to Dona LeCrone Walston with her serene, powerful rocks and river watercolors, to Lee Ricks (who continues to paint well into his 80’s) for his keen observations of our beautiful landscapes, and to Sallie Stanley Carter for the brightly colored portraits of people with stories to tell. Each of you gave us a sense of community and comfort yesterday afternoon.

As you look at the video of yesterday’s opening, I hope you can see the celebration of the arts that has always sustained us. Many thanks to the artists, to the great behind-the-scenes guys who installed the exhibit, and to the people who were there – if you haven’t seen the show, please do come by. It’s a wonderful look at artistic optimism just when we need it most.

Members Invitational Exhibit opens at the San Antonio Art League & Museum from Lyn Belisle on Vimeo.

San Antonio Art League & Museum
130 King William St
San Antonio, TX 78204

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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