Mixed Media Paintings

Posted on January 9, 2015 by ruthlane under mixed media

I seemed to have missed a post last week. I had company, it snowed two feet and somehow I forgot all about posting. But hopefully, I will get back on to a regular schedule soon. Today we had our surface design meeting and we worked on mixed media paintings.

The photos above are the examples that Louise made for us. She used a variety of techniques and layers of paint, fabric, glue, acrylic mediums and gold leaf.

She had the table all set up for us with three canvases to work on. It was easiest to work on multiple canvases so that there was drying time for some of the processes.

Here are some of Carole’s pieces. None of us finished but we just kept adding layers and textures with a variety of tools.

Here are Bunny’s pieces in various stages of development.

These are Sally’s canvases. She also used her extra paint on paper. The only one that might be finished is the far right one in the middle row.

These are my canvases in various stages of development. I have a bit left to do on all three of them. The last photo on the left is the closest to being finished. One of the hardest things I have to work out with these is when to stop. Sometimes I go too far with that one extra layer.

I also used my extra paint on paper. I didn’t take photos of everything so I’ll have to show those later. Hope you all are having a good start to 2015. We’re doing a color challenge over at the Felting and Fiber Studio so please stop by and join in the fun. I will be posting about making a color wheel on Sunday.

Final Mixed Media Painting

Posted on June 13, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media

I finally finished the last mixed media painting. I changed course a bit in the middle as I was planning on adding orange lichen to this piece. But I just couldn’t get it to look like I wanted. I had a few left over leaves from Ice Flowers and liked how they looked.

And I liked how they looked. So I made more as well as machine stitched cord and then glued it all down.

I really like how it brings out the look of bark.

I glued the “bark” down to a painted wooden canvas.

And the leaves are all three-dimensional. I think it would look a bit better if the leaves had more variety of green. But it works. Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by 🙂

Mixed Media Finish and Gold Leaf Experiment

Posted on May 30, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media

I have still been busy making samples and writing my online class. But in between, I did manage to finish two of my mixed media pieces. The first one I already showed you but I did add a coat of Dorland’s wax medium. I’m not sure you can see in the photos but it gives it a richer finish.

Here it is completely finished. Now I have to work out how I’m going to frame it. The edges are uneven and I don’t think I’ll find a commercial frame that fits.

Here’s a closer view. It has a lot of texture on the surface.

This is the second one. It has a photo of aspen and red twig dogwood printed on silk. I covered the edges with tea bags, used several different colors of paint and added a branch of red twig dogwood. Again, not sure on the framing possibilities.

This is the back of my Stephenson challenge felt piece. I still think it needs just a bit more ‘oomph’ so I was considering adding some gold leaf. The process worked well so now I just have to decide if I want to add it or not. It would be organic shapes and would probably be in 3 places or so. I need to decide where to place the gold though.

To remind you what the piece looks like, here it is. What do you think? I think I will put the photo into Photoshop and try applying the gold bits from the photo above to see if I like it. Hope you have a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by.

A Few Odds and Ends

Posted on May 23, 2014 by ruthlane under free motion machine stitching, mixed media

I have been working on my online class making samples and writing up the course. But I do have a few things that I can show you.

Mixed Media Painting “Fragments”

I have nearly finished a couple of the mixed media paintings that I started quite a while ago. This is one of the ones that was plaster on burlap, cracked and then painted. I glued it to a wooden “canvas” and covered it with Dorland’s wax medium.

Mixed Media Painting “Amorphous Circle”

This one I had thought was finished and then decided I should sand it to take off some of the paint. I didn’t like the result at all. So I added some oil paint (from paint sticks) in darker blue. It still needs a few coats of wax medium after the oil paint dries for a few days.

Stitched Felt Cord

I had seen on Facebook that Lisa Klakulak of Strongfelt was machine stitching on felt cords so I thought I’d give it a go. I had an orange felt cord that I made a couple of years ago. There was already blue thread in the sewing machine so I started free motion stitching. It was a bit of a pain and I should have stitched more but I wasn’t really enjoying the process.

Machine stitching on felt cord

This photo shows you the rest of the cord and the stitched cord below it. The stitching flattens the cord right out and really stiffens it.

Bracelet from felted cord that has been machine stitched.

I put a bit of velcro on each end and made it into a bracelet. It’s unlikely I’ll wear it but it was an interesting experiment.

Dyeing Results and More Screen Printing

Posted on May 16, 2014 by ruthlane under mixed media, surface design

I worked today on samples for my mixed media/felt online course that I’m working up. It was lots of fun and I’m looking forward to sharing the processes. I also completed my 2nd quarter challenge for the Felting and Fiber Studio which I’ll post there soon. I thought you’d like to see a few of the dyed pieces from last week’s dyeing session.

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I like how most of them turned out and I’m not sure what they’ll be used for yet but I’m sure they’ll get more layering, especially the two scarves which are pretty boring.

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Because I had a bunch of thickened dye left over from my 2nd quarter challenge piece, I decided to do some screen printing and stenciling on paper. Most of the stencils were ones I had cut a long time ago. There were several that I had never even used. The little blue flowers are a commercial stencil that I won from a blog give away. I had fun playing with these today.

Last, but not least, I got my sewing machine back. So I added some stitching to the fossil paper lamination piece. I really like how it turned out. I will be making many more samples of paper lamination nuno felt as I work up the online class. Fun, fun, fun!

Ruth Lane Art

Experimenting with Arts Endless Possibilities

Category Archives: mixed media