This post is the final roundup of all the layering art I tried after learning the basic method in April 2012.  Afterwards I moved onto playful experimentation. I enjoy ‘playing’ as it loosens me up artistically allowing my image making more freedom and diversity as the end result is not the priority. I tend towards being quite routine bound in almost every other area of my life so these exercises became my playground.

You can have a look at the other posts here: this is the first one:The Artist’s Journey: the layering technique. This is the second one The Artist’s Journey: Expanding the layering technique.

Friday Studio: A Face Layered in Kind is last week’s post

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This post is based on The Artist’s Journey: Expanding the layering technique. The aim today is to highlight the playful aspect.

For my first image, Abstract Mixed Media,  I used canvas and a light, luminous acrylic paint as the base  layer because it shines through very well and then I tried dipping string into black ink and plopping it all over the canvas to create a random texture. There was no plan except to play with the string and watch the marks appear. After that I randomly glued black and white tissue paper over it. It landed up being quite abstract and the viewer is asked to use their  imagination to ‘see’ an image.

Secondly with Paisley Girl, my question was: what if I drew on toilet paper to create my own textured lines?  This time I had a vague idea of making a walled garden entrance with a lightly cloudy sky in the background. I drew paisley on white toilet paper, glued it all over and painted the colour appropriately to demarcate the opening to the garden wall, the background and the girls dress. It was a nice try but I wasn’t thrilled. Maybe I was too planned and playful enough.

Thirdly in Abstract Butterfly I was trying out the idea of ‘chance art’. Chance art is when one let’s go of any preconceived idea and allows a randomness or unpredictability in the execution of the artwork. I think this is a very good technique to try when incubating a new idea. My question was: what if I use string and ink, serviettes, texture in a random way and then look for an image afterwards; so totally unplanned? The resulting image was a bit like when you look up at the clouds and look for images. Once I saw my butterfly image I consolidated it with glitter and lines which made the image pop.

The forth image, Experimental Tree, my question was: what if I created texture with a mixture of serviettes, paint and torn up recycled paper and then use a stencil on top of it. After the layering I stuck stars on as a stencil to sponge more paint over when I sponged paint over the tree stencil I made.

An interesting thing I observed was that I had come full circle to the original image I made of the hands. In that class I went to — we were asked to stencil a tree. I was most unimpressed by the idea and preferred a cut out stencils of my hands. I wonder if the artist in me didn’t like being told what to do; or maybe it just didn’t appeal. I had a niggling feeling afterwards, that maybe I had missed out, so making the tree in my personal studio was my way of trying it out at home. I still prefer my hands above all the other experimental images I did.

After experimenting I took the concept of playing and layering further, with the use of collaging a childhood photo of myself and added fairy wings. I adored fairies when I was young and by chance captured the essence of my inner child.  She is titled: I do believe in fairies, I do, I do, mixed media layering. Here is a quote from my previous layering post explaining the process in more detail:

What I mean by this is: I had the canvas, the photo, the serviette pieces and some of my favorite colours. In my mind’s eye I was going to give the little girl long curly hair (like mine at the time) by using the black and white stylized design. As I tore the pieces I dropped them onto my photo and a thought slowly emerged: “It looks like fairly wings. I like all things winged and fairy-like, including insects, so I will make her into a fairy“. There was my inspiration. Often my creations are as much a surprise to myself as others. This is what I call the ‘playful’ process and I find it fun. I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.

The final one in this series is Forest Girl, Past, Present and Future, mixed media, collage and layering. I have always been drawn to expressive art where one captures a concept, emotion or whatever is uppermost in one’s mind and it is expressed in whatever medium feels the most appropriate for the theme. This theme was coming up in my therapy, sifting through the past, feeling the pain in the present and not being quite convinced yet that I could make choices to positively change my future. Topics like a burial gave,  hiking, getting old, being lost in the woods, and going on a road trip are some of the visual elements but there is a lot of symbolism in the image.

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The Impact of Art on the Artist.

Looking at it now the last image now doesn’t illicit any emotions except for compassion and a ‘maternal’ pride that I got through the challenges and have become a lot more whole. As it happened I was diagnosed with rare, barely detectable breast cancer and was advised to have double mastectomy. I had created Forest Girl, Past, Present and Future months before finding out about the cancer. I found it uncanny that I explored the past, present and future not knowing anything about what lay ahead of me. In the YouTube Short I mention that my art went in a different direction after my treatment. This is something that needs more exploration in the future.

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The Two Books That Influenced My Playfulness

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards were influential in my thirties and forties. Julia Cameron had many nice tips to help one get in touch with the Artist within; one of the tips being the ‘artist’s date.’ I used to think of it as a play-date for my inner child to come out and play. It was fun and fabulous. I don’t do enough of Artist’s pay-dates and chance art at the moment.

Would you take yourself on an artist’s date? Do you want to know more about the Artist’s date?

Here is my YouTube Short.

Please let me know if you can’t see the short as I had it unlisted previously and I am not familiar with the process of making it public.

Take care,
Make lots of playful art
and enjoy your weekend.