Wednesday 22 January 2014

...But Only Hearts Can Build a Home

To be honest.... I tried to do some art journaling or mixed media painting during the last days but all I got was a lot of "stained paper" that went into the bin. But today I came up with a picture that I really like.



While browsing the net I stumbled upon the challenge over at Country View Challenges, where the theme is "Monochromatic"  and that inspired me to join in and focus on some of my favourites: earthtones. To be more precise: a lot of browns in all shades.

The DecoArt Americana palette offers a wide and lovely range of earth tones from "Light Buttermilk" to "Dark Chocolate". On my mixed media piece I used also "French Vanilla", "Antique White", "Yellow Ochre", "Cocoa", "Sable Brown", "Espresso" and "Charcoal Grey".



I started on a square piece of white heavy artists paper and applied droplets of all the colours all over it - from lightest to darkest -  and scraped it around using a scraper.  I did the same on a torn to size piece of brown kraft paper.

The technique for creating the background was mainly inspired by a lovely journal making workshop from wonderful Grace Howes from the "Soul Food" online class.



(I took some pictures of the various stages, but the artificial light at my craft desk made it all look yellow-sick-ish so I spare you the sight of this - I guess you can imagine well enough how acrylic paint looks like when being scraped from left to right, top to bottom and vice versa ;). So there are not step x step images this time. Sorry.




Anyway - this led to a wonderful inspiring background, on which I layered some torn pieces of the coloured brown kraft paper and also some strips of book pages.

I had those cut out kraft paper house shapes lying on my table (being left overs from one of the projects that went to the bin) and they were perfect for today's project :)



I used some of the left overs and tore some doors and windows to size, glued them on and drew the shapes using a black felt tip pen. To add more texture I stamped some numbers and script stamps on them. (I love especially the "fragments" quote stamp from Red Lead, but also the "Dictionary" and "Numbers" stamps from Kaisercraft work great when it comes to creating texture.


I also added two words using a Red Lead stencil and white decorating paste. The quote was stamped onto some white drawing paper, cut out and glued into place. Then I drew frames around the single word tiles.



I also went in with some "pumice stone" Distress ink and a trees stencil, but only lightly so the trees won't create too much structural "noise".


Some areas look rather busy anyway. ;)


I had a great time playing and messing around with colours, stencils, stamps, scissors and glue! I hope you love my "HOME" piece as much as I do :)


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you know that your comments are always very much appreciated (and are what keeps me going on my artful journey)! Thank you for taking the time and leaving me some nice words :)



Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia xx


23 comments:

  1. eine fantastisch schöne und und tiefschichtige Mixed Media Collage Claudia-- ich mag vor allem all diese Erdtöne ---ganz wunderbar gefriemelt!!! Ich spüre die viele Liebe und das Können das da drinnen steckt!

    Bin begeistert!!!

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  2. So creative in total and great to discover loads of interesting details

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  3. Ein sehr gelungenes und harmonisches Mixed-Media-Bild. Ruhige Farbgebung, die die vielen tollen Gestaltungsdetails nicht stört, gefällt mir außerordentlich gut liebe Claudia. Da haben sich die vielen Fehlversuche doch gelohnt, nun ist es doch sehr gut geworden.
    Liebe Grüße und schöne Restwoche.
    Sabine

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  4. Total klasse, die Seite sieht wunderschön aus und es gibt eine Menge zu entdecken. Seit wann wirft man denn etwas in den Papierkorb? MIt Gesso, Farbe und Papierschnipseln ist doch alles zu retten ;)

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  5. This is so beautiful Claudia and that sentiment really does say it all! Anne x

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  6. Love this! So much yo look at a great mixed media piece
    Love
    Amanda x

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  7. I can see why you like it... I certainly do! Wonderful painty background and the layers of book text and stencilling and stamping give it such depth... your little houses are just brilliant. I love that everywhere you look your eye catches new details - wonderful!
    Alison x

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  8. WOW...was für eine total klasse Collage,bin begeistert,da gibt's so viel zu entdecken...TOLL!!!

    LG Marion

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  9. Hi, I just want to say, you are so creative and do such a wide variety of styles so well. Earth tones are not my most favorite colors, and yet I LOVE this. ( I do not hate earth tones, they just are not my favorites). This is a beautiful piece!

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  10. Oh, wie toll ist das geworden, liebe Claudia! Der Spruch ist wunderschön und so wahr. Ich mag die Erdtöne und die vielen Details, gefällt mir außerordentlich gut!
    Liebe Grüße
    Evelyn

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  11. Beautiful. I love all the layering and your colours are great. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. What a gorgeous work! I love all of it: textures, colours, shapes all....

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  13. Oh my ... this is amazing Claudia. I love the colors and the striations of the acrylic paints. And your houses are perfect with their book paper shingles and sketched doors. Wonderful sentiment inspiration!! I really liked the tree stenciled softly in the background. Awesome composition.

    Thanks so much for the encouraging words. You have no idea how much they meant to me. I've been so busy with getting back to work that it is taking me some time to return my correspondence :) Right now, I'm going to continue to wander through your blog. Can't wait to see what you've been up to this month! Have a great week my friend. -- Mary Elizabeth

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  14. So glad you persevered Claudia! This looks totally fantastic, - so many great techniques! The stencilling looks fabulous and I LOVE those houses! As to the quote? One of my all time favourites! A truly gorgeous piece!!!

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  15. Oh Claudia, Du bist eine wunderbare Inspiration! Diese Collage nimmt mir die Luft, weil sie so schön ist. Du hast hier alles versammelt was ich liebe, Wörter, Zahlen, Spruch und Häuser.
    Vielen Dank und alles Liebe, Manuela

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  16. wunderbare farben, herrlich kombiniert. total schön, die collage!
    (muss mal einen Workshop bei dir buchen...).
    alles liebe und bis bald
    margit

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  17. Ich sag Dir mal was, Claudia.... Ich habe Dein neues Kunststück SOFORT gesehen, als es online aufpoppte. Was daran liegt, dass ich Dir bei Bloglovin folge.
    Die erste Empfindung war: DAS WILL ICH HABEN !!!!!!!
    Die zweite: Das möchte ich auch können...
    Und die dritte: Ich muss es ihr sagen...
    So, und da war sie, die Schreibblockade... Der Kommentar sollte natürlich dem Kunstwerk und meiner Bewunderung dafür gerecht werden. Also durfte er nicht husch-husch zwischen Mittagzubereitung und -essen geschrieben werden... Und so zog die Zeit ins Land... Aber das wundervolle Bild wurde nicht vergessen!
    Und hier bin ich nun, nutze die Zeit zwischen Mittagvorbereitung- und essen und schreibe Dir, husch-husch und ganz schnell, wie wunderbar gelungen Deine Collage ist, liebe Claudia! Das sind MEINE Farben, MEINE Zusammenstellung der einzelnen Fragmente, MEINE Worte dazu... Nur, dass ich das nicht so hinbekommen würde! Ich bin in Ehrfurcht erstarrt!!!!
    Und so kurz, wie ich das gar nicht wollte: Vielen Dank für's Zeigen und die Inspiration, die mich jetzt "quält"!
    Liebe Grüße und ein schönes Wochenende...
    Manu

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  18. Claudia this is stunning...background, sentiment and little houses are fantastic ...and of course I like colour combination you choose :)....superb!! i want to see more, please!

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  19. I love the little houses! The overall piece is wonderful :)

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  20. So beautiful and so detailed... lovely!

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  21. Lovely, lovely, lovely entry to our Monochromatic theme at Country View Crafts - thank you for joining us! xxx

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  22. What a great collection of images and it all works so well, love it, Angela x

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