Painted Thoughts Blog: stamps

Sometimes…Ya Gotta Go With What Works!!

Shoe Spoof from #WinterInterrupted
Stillman & Birn Zeta
Watercolor, Stamps, Ink

Is that color overload?! Yes? Good!! Mission accomplished.

While we were poking around in the shops of Pass-A-Grille Beach during Winter Interrupted, we happened upon a sign that said "Wild women wear outrageous shoes" that featured a pair of sky-high stilettos.

I seriously doubt my feet will ever see the inside of a pair of stilettos again, but the words still resonated with me because at the time, I was wearing those very shoes you see in the image. In fact, you can see them in the very first image in this post.

No one has to tell me they're ugly. I know it. No one has to tell me they're as comfortable as any shoes I've ever worn either. I usually wear them around the house or out in the yard. Just not in public. But here in Florida, well, let's just say you can wear just about anything at the beach and no one's going to so much as bat an eyelash.

But there's a reason—a very good reason I might add—why I opted to wear these outrageous shoes…back in the fall when we were in Maine, I slipped while climbing on a granite ledge below our cabin. It was slick with silt from the outgoing tide. I did quite the number on my knee and foot.

While they're mostly healed, my foot occasionally takes exception to overuse such as walking around all.day.long at the beach. When that happens, my foot swells and any other type of shoe becomes a torture device.

So, these were the shoes I wore all week long. Attractive? No! But they allowed me to continue to function through the week. Being raised on a strawberry farm as a teenager, I got over "looking cool" many long years ago. It was far more important to be practical and dress to be warm or cool, be able to move without binding or chafing, and to be able to stand on your feet for long periods of time.

There was simply no room for dressing cool for school. Besides, unlike at the beach, there was no one to see me on the farm and those that did weren't part of the school scene.

But I have to say, these shoes have one other feature that makes them perfect beach wear…they float and they dry in a hurry. Perfect for splashing in the water!

As for the color fest above, Florida beaches are nothing if not gaudy with all the bright colors and that was what I had in mind when I indulged in the neon colors! I gotta say, I kinda like it…it certainly chases away the gray days of winter.

Do you wear outrageous shoes?!

13 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

experiment

Adding (Unusual) Texture To The Page (Tutorial)

If we keep our eyes and our minds open, we can often find texture in unexpected places…

Texture From An Unlikely Source

I often use small dishes when I'm working on a big painting where I need a large amount of paint. By using a separate dish, I'm assured I'll have a) plenty of paint; b) won't accidentally mix it up with another color; and c) I'll have it until the painting is finished…for a really long time. (I've been known to go back into a painting 6 months after it was finished.)

Messy palette dishes

However, years later it is unlikely I'll make changes and since the dishes seemed to be multiplying in the cabinet, it was time to clean up the mess.

As I began the big clean up (dang, there were a lot of those little dishes!), I became intrigued with what was left in the some of the palettes:

Texture left at the bottom of small dish. The textured area is about 2.5 x 1 inches in size.

I took photos and cropped out the dish so I was left with this:

Accidental texture from the bottom of the dish

After printing the page, I prepped the art by tearing down the edges:

Tearing down the edges of the printed art with a deckle-edged ruler

Next, I began to consider what I wanted to do with the background of the page. Since I was on a "texture adventure," I decided to create even more texture:

salt, alcohol and lifting created the texture

Starting with granulating paint, I added salt, alcohol splatters and did some lifting with a tissue to create a build-up of texture on the page.

Next, I decided to rid the art texture of that harsh white border by painting it with a wash of the same paints used on the background:

Painting the edges of the art so that it blended with the background

Gluing it down, I began to build up the page with rubber stamps and additional pieces of torn paper:

Using rubber stamps, a variety of inks, and torn paper, I created more interest in the background
and around the art itself.

It was fun to choose stamps at random, going on instinct and intuition, as I had no idea how the page would finish out.

An added "shadow" on two edges of the texture art gives it more dimension

When all was said and done, this was my completed page:

Finished Page in a
Stillman and Birn Zeta Journal
5.5 x 8.5 inches
Watercolor, stamps, torn paper, dip pen, Pitt pens and foil

Even Willis wanted to check it out a little closer!

Willis checking out the page. I think she favors the other page,
but then she's fickle.

What was fun to me is that the art texture, now a print, has been made into a finished page. A one of a kind page. Because I still have the "art," I can see dozens of ways to use the texture and it will probably show up in another project.

This has been somewhat of a break-out project for me as I continue to explore and look for different ways of doing what I enjoy—creating a page in my journal. A rather unusual way of marking cleaning up my studio, don't you think!?! I also think this kind of play will have an impact on the way I create location sketches as well.

The next time you see unusual texture, take a photo and think about how you might add it to your page. You might just be surprised at where it will take you!