Fun Painting Night

Today was a full day of homeschooling the kids and errands. I am caught up on laundry and the kitchen counters aren't cluttered. I have not had a serious art making session in quite a while. I announced to my husband that tonight was ATC making night. He did not protest which I very much appreciated.

The kids were busy playing after dinner. I pulled out some map-themed ATCs that I made. One could call these finished. They are very clean looking collages. I am not happy with them as they feel too new and too bright and they don't feel finished TO ME. I decided to paint them in some way to change the look of them.

I was very impressed by some of the map ATCs that Sharon made. Sharon is an artist from Australia who shares scans of her artwork with anyone who is interested, via her Yahoo Group! She is also a member of some of the chat lists that I am a member of. I took a look at her scans again for some inspiration and set to work.

I pulled out my acrylic paints. These are little 2 ounce bottles that cost under $1 from the craft store. I started by adding water to one color to make an acrylic wash. I was not happy with the effect so I wipded it off with a paper towel. Some of the color had already sunk into the paper. I then pulled a different color and washed over that. Then I wiped that off.

I played around with the ATC and finally made a portion of the map disappear by painting over it. I then used a rubber stamp to print acrylic paint onto a part of the ATC. I then did a little rough hand painting. I painted a border around it. I think it is done now.

I also should mention that it is not typical that I am left alone in a room to do this. Tonight I was alone so I switched the TV off of the news (very uninspiring to me) and scrolled down through the channels. I found a VH1 Classic channel which was playing all the music videos from the very early 1980s. Those were popular when I was a young teen. I heard songs I have not heard in 20 years and was surprised that I remembered all the words. These light hearted songs were very inspirational to me.

Rather than work with such detail on the other map ATCs I decided to paint backgrounds. Using purples, blues and greens I painted some backgrounds. When the paint ran out I cleaned up and then changed to a different color palette of orange, tangerine, pale yellow, and white. I painted over 30 ATC backgrounds, using pre-cut cardboard which are from recycled food and other consumer product containers. I suddenly felt the canvas was too small so ran to my paper storage shelf in the basement to get a piece of 8.5x11" canvasette. I painted that up then I went back to making more ATC backgrounds. I have 44 backgrounds finished!

I had a blast!

I plan to use some of these backgrounds to make ATCs for an affirmation swap.

As I write this a huge snowstorm is heading our way. If it hits as anticipated some of my plans for the weekend will be cancelled. I am planning to spend that time hibernating in the house, having fun with my kids and making more art!