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Posts Tagged ‘recreations’

How we all long for a bit of time to just relax and take it easy! We all seem to work so hard, yet find such little time in our lives to just purely relax and unwind. Particularly when we need this so badly. Never the less, we all look for our bit of peace in different ways.

So yes, you need soothing from all the daily frustrations we face. Head off, camera in hand, and find your salvation somewhere out of town. As a contemporary artist I find that this works wonders. Natural scenes are a wonderful tonic, birds, trees, leaves, grasses, hills, animals to observe.

The colors in the country are inspiring, whether in winter or summer. I love the starkness of winter when the trees are stripped bare, the first snows, and of course the pattern that frost make, whether on the window panes, cars, etc.

The Autumn is fantastic. This surely is one of the best seasons for color. Swirling leaves in mixed colors blowing in all directions, golden yellows, browns and varying shades of reds. They seem to pelt along together with the falling twigs from the trees, conkers and ebbing leaves.

I have spent some time in County Kerry, where the scenes there are naturally rugged which is fascinating to the eye of a painter. If you head on towards Dingle the natural flow of the waterfalls at Muckross Pass takes your breath away. The early morning mists too, are something to behold.

Different things capture people’s emotions, personally I am quite happy to stroll along a deserted beach at any time of the year. Observe the birds, watch the sun dappling on the water, or the flow of the tide as it comes in and goes out. Even see children playing, running in and out of the water, building sandcastles, or dogs roaming free off the leash.

There is no shortage of things we can paint. Starting with all the new buds and blossom putting in an appearance, and all the first flowers of spring trying to sprout through like the gentle Celandine, primroses, snowdrops to name but a few. Then there are our wonderful, mind blowing sunrises and sunsets. What more could you need to get started?

Easter arrives, the first cuckoos and we are in May before we know it. Carpets of Bluebells flourish in our countryside, creating a heady display. Next stop are our summer months, flowers blooming and trees complementing them.

How these colorful floral displays cheer us up with their lovely displays of color. We love them all, delicate shades of pastels, but also the really strong dynamic colors hit us in the eye.

Skylines too are fantastic. The cloud formations are always interesting with their delicate and also very strong tints. Red skies are wonderful relating to you that the next day is going to be golden.

Landscapes are so inspiring and never boring. That is why artist’s love doing them. You are never short of natures subjects, so come on, take your first steps and bite the bullet.

How can I go about this? Well, you may ask, I can tell you this may not be very easy to achieve. Pastels are smudgy paints! You will find they pick up dirt specks and the paints are actually quite fragile.

The pigment in pastels is fairly loose, so bear in mind this could be dangerous. Care is needed with the specks of dust pigments. You will not want to inhale these. Therefore it can be a problem looking after your work.

Some people do use a daily newspaper to store their work, but with this you stand the risk of spoiling your work with the newsprint or acidity of the paper. Another way out of this would be to use a tissue paper that is acid free.

Now for those of you who want to store your art for a future date, I would suggest you use the following method. You will need tissue paper or greaseproof paper to cover your painting. Then it needs to be strapped down with masking tape to a board that is acid free.

Always reconsider your work at the framing stage. You may find you prefer to eliminate some. A couple of inches could make a big difference.

Most artists, you will find, probably have a frame of card to put over their work at different angles and decide what they think is best. Does the painting look better with less at the sides for instance? You have to make a considered choice.

If you want to put your work in a glass frame make sure that you have like a cardboard mat over the sides of it, as you do not want it touching the glass. Never have your work next to the glass with pastels. Otherwise you are likely to get condensation and get dark spots on your work.

Your painting will remain intact for years without “fixing” like this. Fixing, by spraying, is also possible if you wish, as long as you are aware of not inhaling the fumes.

I cannot stress enough how dangerous these fumes can be to your health. Care is needed when spraying. Take your work outside if the weather will allow it. Failing this, fling open all your windows, if you must do it inside.

Pastels can be quite messy and tend to create dust. This is not too good if you suffer from allergies. It is possible to buy plastic masks which will cover your nose and mouth, to alleviate the problem.

It is quite possible otherwise that your nose will get all stuffy if there is not much air in the room, so this is a word of warning. As I said previously when you work with pastels they do tend to make a mess of your hands. I find that I take quite a few breaks for coffee, just so that I can give them a very good wash, before I continue.

Why not try making your own cards? My friends love it when they receive my home made cards. So lets get to work on making wax resist cards. Yes, I mean it, get creative!

First of all, what will you need? A selection of items, namely some gold or silver ink, scissors, 2H pencil, glue stick, something like Pritt for instance, childrens wax crayons, watercolour paints, some pieces of card which are of A5 size and a brush No 6.

Now, as for the type of card to be used, a slightly textured one would be good with a chalk type surface. Wax crayons would work well on this. It has to be stiff though, as you need to be able to fold it in half.

As for the card, you could try going to a printer to buy the A3, sometimes they will sell it to you and possibly cut it to A5 size for you. This can work out quite cheaply. However, depending on the area you live in, you may be able to actually buy some blank, ready made, cards.

Into action now! Take a piece of your A5 card and cut a piece into two halves widthways. You then need to draw your image in the centre. Any image you make needs to be clear, so that you are then able to cut it out. Your image needs to be something whereby you can cut out segments and they have to be outlined clearly to be possible to cut them out to give you a stencil.

Now with a pair of scissors, do just that! Then you have your stencils. Continue by sticking your cut outs on your other piece of card, so that now it will appear like a raised picture. Fold a piece of your A5 in half widthways, to actually make your card. Then put the card you have glued your picture on, in the middle of it.

With this template now in place, you can now use your crayons and rub over the surface of the card. You will then come to realise, that the shapes above, will catch the colour of the image below. Care is needed when you hold the template and the card to keep them both in a steady, tight grasp. Any slight movement can be detrimental to your work.

Presumably you have reached this point, continue with another crayon by rubbing the side of this all over your card front. It will then show up the colours that are underneath. You can make these even stronger by pressing harder.

Not all crayons will make the same marks, it really depends on how much pressure is used and where. Get your watercolours out and mix a pretty watery mix. Paint a circle or square around your work with your gold or silver paint. This then enables you to wash over your other work with a No 6 brush, filling in any spaces.

Whatever you do, don`t overdo the paint on your image, it needs to be watery so that you achieve fairly transparent colours.

Candle creation is pretty easy to do on the whole. I am only surprised that more people don’t take a crack at this bearing in mind that candles are such a well-liked item. Not merely do they establish a feeling of warmth and release perhaps healing powers as we find them restful, but they also give us dusky and intimate atmospheres to relax by.

What is more, you necessitate very few objects to make them with. Firstly you will require some moulds, these are as a rule to be found in rubber otherwise plastic, nevertheless they need to be compliant. Along with 3 or 4 assorted wicks in varying sizes and some colour. There is usually quite a choice of colours, so you can, in fact, mix them.

Subsequently there is the wax/stearin itself, and you would certainly love some nice scents to harmonize with the candles. Accordingly, first grab your moulds and take care that they are perfectly clean inside and not harbouring dust.

Some moulds have a wick space, thus you will need to do a scratch to ease the wick through. The thinner wicks to be used for the smaller moulds and vice versa. On average you need to cut the wick at least 2 inches longer than your mould. Put the wick through the mould, tying a knot in the wick on the definite exterior of your mould.

Then pull this out about half an inch, this piece is wished-for to light it by. Compress some blue tack about the hole on the mould outside, otherwise your wax is likely to run out. Now, at the foot of the mould, fasten the other ending of the wick to a cocktail stick plus set this across your mould base.

Evidently the wick has to stay central and firm, but do not attempt to stretch it. How much wax do I contemplate you will need? If you fill your mould with water before you start this will act like a guide, however take into account this is the melted wax I am talking in relation to.

Now you will require a pair of interlocking saucepans, so that one will integrate the other. Fetch a support and position some warm water under the bigger saucepan. The wax goes in your small saucepan. Place the small pan in the bigger one and immediately place it on a low heat (temperature). If you are not clear in your mind how much wax to employ check out roughly 500g.

Watch the wax in addition to the water level carefully. Don’t let it get too hot! Once this has melted add the stearin. Add one tenth stearin to ten parts wax. Put your colour in a little at a time from the colour strips, you will not need much. After that add some fragrance, pot pourri, or else essential oils.

The mould needs to be slightly warm. Pour the wax into a measuring jug, as this makes it easier to then fill up your mould. Try and hang on to the mould on a tilt when you carry out this. What’s more, endeavor to empty the wax inside so that it nearly touches the cocktail stick. You will perhaps have to block in all-around the bottom as soon as it has cooled down.

When it has set rigid, take off the mould sealant. Cut the knot off the wick as near to the knot as possible, then detach the toothpick from the base. Now take out your candle. If this is difficult, run the hot water tap over it for a few moments.

Now chop the wick to however long you actually want it. Make sure the base of the candle is dead flat and leave it at least a day. It should then be ready for use. If you have managed this successfully you will probably receive as much pleasure from it as if you were creating, say abstract paintings, or even realism artwork.

We all give in to various trends of fashion, whether it is things that are in at the moment or sometimes things that hail from yesteryear. A great deal depends on the current frame of mind we are, actually, in along with what look we fancy to actually attain.

Fashions do come and go, and yes, return again! If you store things long enough they are almost certainly sure to. So many of us now run such active lives, tearing here there and everywhere, trying to carry out everything with not enough hours in the day.

We all need to halt sometimes and wind down a little, but the time allocated for this seems to be ever decreasing. As a result, with so little time remaining for recreation, one thing that we can carry out to benefit ourselves, is to actually enclose our living area with stuff which will offer harmony and furthermore a sense of tranquility. This can merely result in lifting our mental state.

All right, we can hang up a few abstract paintings, nevertheless you too can add a dash of realism by using leaves collected from your very own garden to generate your own pictures. I, for myself, formerly had a few of these featuring in my bathroom. These wood frames all contained a single leaf, but I became very fond of them. Unfortunately they got lost along the way after I packed up my house!

Consequently let me explain. If, for example, you utilize a wooden frame that has a rectangular shape, say 10x 8 inches, it will probably have an insert section of about 4×6 inches. Working on this assumption, you would be better to select a frame with the front side entirely wood, except for the insert portion.

Protect your work surface with paper. To start take the casing apart by removing the backside plus the glass. Next sandpaper all the wood down, then make sure you eliminate all the dust before you carry on.

Now take a paintbrush and apply a coat of white primer to all the wood and then allow this to become dry. When it has dried you will need to brush on a colour that will fuse with your leaf. A natural brown will go together with most dcors. Position it somewhere to dry out, optimistically where it will not collect dust.

When this is all set for you to continue use a sandpaper and rub the paint down. The paint should shine through, part white, part colour, to give a distressed look. As for your leaves, you would merely want a single leaf in this example. Whichever leaf you propose to use has to be thoroughly dried out. You could place the leaves between newspaper, or blotting paper, with a heavy weight on top. Or else, just leave them somewhere warm on paper to dry out.

You might like to brush the leaves presently with some varnish or glycerine, but this is not essential. Make certain that you come up with some basic card for your paper backdrop, of your inset. Recycled paper is perfect. This can be white, cream, otherwise instead a lighter or darker color than your framework.

Presumably you will discover that your leaf will mount inside the inset rather neatly, however if not, you may possibly put a small piece of double sided sticky tape or glue on the flipside of the leaf to secure it. At this time you can rebuild the whole frame.

In the main, I consider, this works just fine if you arrange a set of them, like a set of 2,3, or 4, and each and every one with a different kind of leaf.