2019 #8 Put a Brush on it: Literally with JoFY {by Gabrielle Price}

2019 Topic 8: Put a Brush On It

Cracked paint, texture, rust and shades of patina. Sounds like the perfect combination to me! I'm sure you'll agree! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Gabrielle from Crafty Thoughts with you today, and I'd like to share with you two projects that took the brief very literally!

I have been reading a fascinating book about Monet's work and love his use of colours. I wanted to create using his colour palette and sense of texture - and what better way to do this than with Fresco paints!

I 'borrowed' a very old paintbrush from my dad and knew from the wear on the handle that I was going to turn it into a flower stem. When the basic background was in place I used finger painting to add the next layers - well, I did have a big brush I was going to put on it as a focal point! 

Building layers and layers of paint and bringing the Grunge Paste stencilling (PS108) to the fore, or knocking them back, was huge fun. Fresco Paints can be found here, or source your local supplier from any 'new product' announcement here on the PaperArtsy Blog.

I used a tip from Seth Apter and started with a black base, building to a lighter finish. I normally find I sand my work at some point so I actually put my sander in a box so I wasn't tempted on this project! 

The background stamp was from JOFY25 and the flower head was made from JOFY09.

I stencilled the leaves (PS023) and then added lots of small layers of paint (Limelight, Hey Pesto and Granny Smith) to add shadows and highlights.

I then used the same wonderful colours JOFY09 stamps and stencil to create a new spread in my flashcard book (if you look carefully you can still see the words!) to create a vintage flower garden. I painted the flowers with the thinest paintbrush in the world (well, in my studio!)

I know we've encouraged you in this topic to use paintbrushes with the fabulous Fresco Acrylic Paints but why not have a go using your fingers to paint? Especially if you have Grunge Paste details as it allows you get some really cool effects! Oh! And you don't have to wash your brushes afterwards!

Thank you for joining me!
Gabrielle

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