Michelle Ward/GreenPepperPress Blog

It's no big secret….I love spray paint.  I learned how messy it can be when I had the job of repainting our lawn chairs as a teenager.  Until 2006, I considered spray paint to be for refinishing furniture or red wagons.  Then one weekend when I was away with friends for a self-imposed art retreat, my friend Lisa Hoffman pulled out a few cans for a project.  I had to go outside, in the rain, under a tent, and try the paint with my stencils in a journal.  I was hooked!  I loved the randomness that spray offers, and the quick drying so you can move stencils around swiftly – placing, spraying, repeating.  Once the paint gets too built up on the stencil I figured out you could monoprint it off.  Flip and rub.  For me, and the way I work, its hard to separate spray paint from stencils, but for today I'm just nodding to one of my favorite supplies:  spray paint.  Stencils will be presented later.  I recently learned that Liquitex (who have some really nice new acrylic based spray paints) is based right here where I live…same town!  Wouldn't it be fun to get on their payroll somehow? 

 

 

 

 

 

It's no big secret….I love spray paint.  I learned how messy it can be when I had the job of repainting our lawn chairs as a teenager.  Until 2006, I considered spray paint to be for refinishing furniture or red wagons.  Then one weekend when I was away with friends for a self-imposed art retreat, my friend Lisa Hoffman pulled out a few cans for a project.  I had to go outside, in the rain, under a tent, and try the paint with my stencils in a journal.  I was hooked!  I loved the randomness that spray offers, and the quick drying so you can move stencils around swiftly – placing, spraying, repeating.  Once the paint gets too built up on the stencil I figured out you could monoprint it off.  Flip and rub.  For me, and the way I work, its hard to separate spray paint from stencils, but for today I'm just nodding to one of my favorite supplies:  spray paint.  Stencils will be presented later.  I recently learned that Liquitex (who have some really nice new acrylic based spray paints) is based right here where I live…same town!  Wouldn't it be fun to get on their payroll somehow? 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't ask me about the scientific properties of gesso.  All I know is:  it works for me.  I lay gesso down on nearly everything as a first layer.  I love it's quality of resisting acrylic.  A nice dry gessoed surface can be painted with acrylic and sprayed with water and completely lifted off, or let it set a few seconds and wipe off for little specks, leave longer for more pronounced specks.  Apply gesso through a stencil and after you've heat dried it or let it set overnight you can add a wash of color and lift off for a really nice effect.  I love when my paper plate palette gets so messy with color, and brushes are no longer recognizable as the black paint, or the ochre paint, and gesso gets mixed in….some cool stuff happens.  If your painting feels like it's getting too dark or muddy, brush on a little gesso, then add a layer of color.  The new layer will pop with a brightness that color alone can't offer you.  Here are some works that show how gesso is always the common demoninator. 

Thank you for all your heartfelt and kind words about Winston yesterday.  It will be a Valentine's Day to treasure.

 

 

Don't ask me about the scientific properties of gesso.  All I know is:  it works for me.  I lay gesso down on nearly everything as a first layer.  I love it's quality of resisting acrylic.  A nice dry gessoed surface can be painted with acrylic and sprayed with water and completely lifted off, or let it set a few seconds and wipe off for little specks, leave longer for more pronounced specks.  Apply gesso through a stencil and after you've heat dried it or let it set overnight you can add a wash of color and lift off for a really nice effect.  I love when my paper plate palette gets so messy with color, and brushes are no longer recognizable as the black paint, or the ochre paint, and gesso gets mixed in….some cool stuff happens.  If your painting feels like it's getting too dark or muddy, brush on a little gesso, then add a layer of color.  The new layer will pop with a brightness that color alone can't offer you.  Here are some works that show how gesso is always the common demoninator. 

Thank you for all your heartfelt and kind words about Winston yesterday.  It will be a Valentine's Day to treasure.

 

 

Three years ago I went crazy for needle felting.  I saw a 3 minute video on youtube and it looked so easy.  I collected the materials required – inexpensive and easy to get online.  I was hooked on making felted treats for gifts – hearts, shamrocks, and eggs….then I started making acorns and fit them into the real caps.  It's a great project to do with the kids but be sure to get the tool thing that shields the needles because those things really hurt!  I loved working on felting around the dining table in the winter months when my studio was too cold.  There are artists who are very prolific in either wet felting or needle felting – very cool stuff out there, give it a google.  I was happy to just try it out….and maybe I'll pick it up again as we have snow falling as I type.

 

 

Three years ago I went crazy for needle felting.  I saw a 3 minute video on youtube and it looked so easy.  I collected the materials required – inexpensive and easy to get online.  I was hooked on making felted treats for gifts – hearts, shamrocks, and eggs….then I started making acorns and fit them into the real caps.  It's a great project to do with the kids but be sure to get the tool thing that shields the needles because those things really hurt!  I loved working on felting around the dining table in the winter months when my studio was too cold.  There are artists who are very prolific in either wet felting or needle felting – very cool stuff out there, give it a google.  I was happy to just try it out….and maybe I'll pick it up again as we have snow falling as I type.

 

 

I was a lego and block girl.  I still am.  I can never resist stopping in the wood items aisle at the craft store to see if there are any new styles of finials.  A few years ago a scored a Michael Graves set of building blocks at Target.  Swoon! 

I think working on blocks is a great way to forge through creative block if you are experiencing one or need to have an aimless project to keep busy.  There is something non-committal about it.  It's not a 'real' canvas, it's not attached to your journal.  Just a humble loose supply that can be sanded, painted, stamped, wrapped, collaged, brushed with wax….and then make another, and another….then stack them.  Move them around.  Build compositions.  Learn from it or just enjoy it.  And before you know it you have an emerald city, or an urban landscape.  

Speaking of 'creative block', I covered a host of blocks with some of my Stampers Anonymous images as an entry to an art contest for Art Continuum (an art retreat hosted by the Creative Block store, and won a prize!).  I've used blocks as a class format on several occasions, and have enjoyed the process with groups of friends – first Lisa, Anne, and Lynne in Montreal was back in 2002, and with Betsy, Sande, Laura, and Anne when I first was entertaining holding workshops in my home studio.  I love that each artist completed them in their own way, their personal styles evident. 

The first piece I show below "Perpetual", is one that evolved from an a-ha moment…taking some of the blocks and stacking them on dowels so they spin, revealing all the sides.  It's an interactive art piece – as seen in Somerset Studio, July/August 2005.  Each time I pass it on the wall I move a few blocks.  The following picture is a sampling of blocks that are stacked around the studio – you can see how I started with paint and stamps and moved into spray paint.  A great time-capsule of how my style has changed. 

In a creative rut?  Pick up a few blocks and start making some of your own.  It's been a rough few days here – more about that later….I think it's time for ME to get out some blanks as a therapeutic distraction.

 

EDIT:  In February 2017 I revisited blocks for an article for May/June Somerset Studio.  The surfaces were treated with a wood burning tool with a method called pyrography.  See the blog post HERE. 

 

I was a lego and block girl.  I still am.  I can never resist stopping in the wood items aisle at the craft store to see if there are any new styles of finials.  A few years ago a scored a Michael Graves set of building blocks at Target.  Swoon! 

I think working on blocks is a great way to forge through creative block if you are experiencing one or need to have an aimless project to keep busy.  There is something non-committal about it.  It's not a 'real' canvas, it's not attached to your journal.  Just a humble loose supply that can be sanded, painted, stamped, wrapped, collaged, brushed with wax….and then make another, and another….then stack them.  Move them around.  Build compositions.  Learn from it or just enjoy it.  And before you know it you have an emerald city, or an urban landscape.  

Speaking of 'creative block', I covered a host of blocks with some of my Stampers Anonymous images as an entry to an art contest for Art Continuum (an art retreat hosted by the Creative Block store, and won a prize!).  I've used blocks as a class format on several occasions, and have enjoyed the process with groups of friends – first Lisa, Anne, and Lynne in Montreal was back in 2002, and with Betsy, Sande, Laura, and Anne when I first was entertaining holding workshops in my home studio.  I love that each artist completed them in their own way, their personal styles evident. 

The first piece I show below "Perpetual", is one that evolved from an a-ha moment…taking some of the blocks and stacking them on dowels so they spin, revealing all the sides.  It's an interactive art piece – as seen in Somerset Studio, July/August 2005.  Each time I pass it on the wall I move a few blocks.  The following picture is a sampling of blocks that are stacked around the studio – you can see how I started with paint and stamps and moved into spray paint.  A great time-capsule of how my style has changed. 

In a creative rut?  Pick up a few blocks and start making some of your own.  It's been a rough few days here – more about that later….I think it's time for ME to get out some blanks as a therapeutic distraction.

 

EDIT:  In February 2017 I revisited blocks for an article for May/June Somerset Studio.  The surfaces were treated with a wood burning tool with a method called pyrography.  See the blog post HERE.