Yellow Cactus Dahlia Canvas

Sorry I've been so quiet.  I'm having quite a hard time at the moment due to nueropathic pain caused by my MS.  I've got an appointment on 20th October at the Pain Clinic to see if they can help.

Anyhoo enough of my woes.

Last week a family friend, Keith, who has an allotment near my parents left a plant pot full of dahlias in their back yard.  He gives us some every year after the Leek Shows, after I told him a few years ago how much I love them.  You can see from the photo how wonderful they are!

A couple of years ago, Keith was doing some work in my house and I had some Stambord blocks that I had not long finished on the hearth.  He was fascinated by them and the rest of my artwork.  I offered to make something for him and he asked if it could be based on a yellow cactus dahlia he grown some years previously.  He gave me a tattered photo taken before digital cameras with the dahlia in the distance.  This is a close up of the yellow cactus dahlia he gave me this year (complete with greenfly!).

I first drew out what I was thinking and added some ideas for materials.  It still shocks me at how good the drawing turned out, as I couldn't really see the dahlia in the photo, so I drew this image from memory.

I knew I wanted the flower to be 3D, so working out how to do it became a real challenge.

I decided it would be best shown on a canvas, so I coloured a 12x12 deep edge canvas with various yellow and green paint.  It was so long ago I can't remember what colours or even paint I used, but I know I used a scrunched-up piece of copier paper to add green to the mix.  I didn't want the colour of the canvas to be the main focal point.

Next I hand drew some simple petal shapes onto acetate and cut the centre portion out so that I could just draw round the inside of the template to make each petal.  These are for the larger petals and I did a similar one for the smaller petals too.

I sat one night in front of the TV drawing petals onto various patterned yellow scrapbook paper.  Then the marathon cutting out started which took a while as I found it so tiring.  I knew it was going to take a lot of petals but I didn't realised just how many!

Once I cut the petals I went onto the internet to find a close up of the flower to see how the centre looked.  Its very tight with lots of smaller petals opening from it.  After a few days of thinking I came up with the idea of using a polystyrene ping-pong sized ball and painted it yellow.  I used yellow tissue paper to make the petals for the very centre as it gave the illusion of them just having opened.  While I was on the internet I got a definition of dahlia, copied into Word, changed the font and printed it onto vellum to use on the project. 

 

I wanted each petal to have texture so I put most of them through the Cuttlebug, using various folders with some embossed and some debossed.  I then folded the base of the petals behind and secured with tape.  This meant that they looked more like the real thing.  Once I'd finshed all of the petals I started to build the flower.  I built it off the canvas in case it didn't turn out the way I had envisaged.  I used a 2" square of card as the base and stuck the petals to it using silicone glue.  This photo is of the first two layers of petals.  This was when I realised I needed some more so another marathon tracing, cutting and taping session ensued LOL!!!
 
I built the centre layers of the flower separately too in case of error as the base layers were working so well.  I used a plastic cup to keep the centre upright as the ball just kept trying to roll away!!  I first attached the tissue paper but just stuck to the underside of the ball, so the tops of the petals were free to move.
 

As I began the lower layers of the centre I used double sided paper as the undersides could be seen and curled the paper to give the petals more 'life'.  This photo is of the completed flower.
 

I used TSS metal in silver to cover the sides of the canvas.  I just doodled free-hand on the metal with a couple of the TSS tools.  I needed to colour the metal to make it tone in, but don't own any Alcohol Inks (OK I can hear the gasps of horror!!).  I used brown acrylic paint applied with my finger (very carefully, so no cuts!) and then rubbed it back with a piece of kitchen towel.  I stuck it on using TSS Humungo tape and made sure the edges and corners were safe.
 
I tore the vellum into a long shape and spritzed it with some kind of gold mist that I think I've chucked out now!!  I then placed that and the completed flower to get the composition right. 
 

The canvas needed something else.  A while ago I had bought some vintage glitter rub-ons from QVC.  One of them was of a girl holding a flower which looked suspiciously like a dahlia.  I painted a smaller canvas the same colour as the base and applied the rub-on to the canvas.  It didn't really stick too well at first, but I used my finger direct onto the image and it eventually stuck, but I distressed it as it looked too pristine.  I put metal round the miniature canvas too and put a self adhesive clear dome over the flower.

 

 

I stuck everything down once I was happy with compostion using silicone or Glossy Accents.  In hindsight I don't think I shoulda used Glossy Accents on the vellum as it showed through a little, but maybe it added to the crumpled / distressed look.  I used another dome to highlight the word 'dahlia'.

 

 

 

 

To finish off I stamped an Elusive Image stamp onto Stampbord which I had coloured yellow and higlighted the stamp using a scraping tool.

 

This sentiment is perfect for Keith's sense of humour!!

 

 

 

I put a few dots of liquid pearls round the corners and a couple of yellow jewels and the canvas was ready for delivery to Keith once it dried.  he was delighted with it.  You can make your own mind up....

And by the way...can you guess how many petals it took? No prize, just for fun!!

Art and Counselling (part 1)

As I've already mentioned I'm seeing a counsellor at the moment to help with depression and also the wider aspects of my MS.

She'd been really interested in the crafting / artwork I do and she's asked me to take pieces along to the sessions.  During one session while I was feeling particularly irritated at life in general, but couldn't put my finger on what it was, she suggested I do a journal page around the feelings I had.  I went one better and did a canvas.

This is my 'Irritation Canvas'.  I really enjoyed making it and it really helped me get my frustrations and irritation out!

I started with a 30cm x 40cm canvas and painted it with and Ikea wax paint which is meant to be used on wood.  Then I scraped some it off with a spatula.


I used a Paint Dabber in citrus through some sequin waste (which took a lot of frustration out when I started hammering the dabber down on the canvas LOL!!!!).  Next I ripped a piece out of a magazine (the black piece to the left) which sort of felt like what was happening in my head and stuck it on with Golden gel medium.  I then went through my many pieces cut from magazines to find some words and I also found the cartoon image of the man tied up with string (bottom right).

The lines were created by accident.  I wanted to put some yellow on the canvas, but the paint dabber wouldn't dab, no matter how hard I hit it so I stirred it with a bamboo skewer.  In true crafting style I couldn't just waste the paint on the skewer so I dragged across the canvas and did the same with a Cranberry dabber and a skewer.

The canvas sits in my living room and is helping me to relax whenever I feel irritated!

Creative Road Canvas

I decided I wanted a large canvas to go on the chimney breast wall above my bed.  I got a 27" x 19" canvas to paint.  I knew I wanted to put smaller canvases onto it and decorate them.

I began by putting shades of orange, red and yellow Lumin Arte Radiant Rain  onto the canvas in 3 curved stripes.  This didn't work, so I pained over the whole thing with the same orange as I had used originally.  Unfortunately it didn't cover the red very well, so I used a Stewart Gill colourise in orange and roughly smooshed that over the top.  Then I sprayed Sticky Fingers Fireworks Orange over random portions of the canvas.

Happy with the overall effect, I realised that the colour was almost the same as my bedroom walls and it would just sink into them rather than stand out!  So I hand painted (eek!!!) a frame around the edge of the canvas in a blue Stewart Gill Byzantia paint.  The colour labels have come off the lids of most of my Stewart Gill paints so I don't know their names!!

I got my smaller canvases and placed them onto the larger one to get the placement and sizing right before I painted them - 2 in green Byazantia, 3 in blue Byzantia and 1 in a lighter shade of orange (can't remember what!).

This smaller canvas (left) was the orange one and I made some basic Grungebord flower.  I drew a flower to use as a template onto paper before cutting it out and drawing round on the Grungebord.  I painted them in shades of purple before assembling and using an aqua coloured bedazzles for the centres.  The stems are Grungebord too.

This canvas on the right was done by stamping Paperartsy stamps onto Ten Seconds Studio (TSS) metal in Periwinkle and Appletini using black Stazon.  I then put an Humungo adhesive sheet onto the back of the metal and put it onto cardboard.  The sheet provides a kind of 'cushion' for you to using an embossing tool to go around the stamped lines.  You have to do this before it is cut out as some of the lines are the outside of the image.  I cut it our and used Glossy Accents to stick it to the canvas and had some pieces over the edge to add interest to the overall effect.

This canvas (left) was painted green and I applied a small glittered rub-on of an angel to it with some effort.  The rub-on did not want to stick to the canvas, but I managed with a little perseverance.  It looked too pristine so I distressed using a Tim Holtz Craft Scratcher to scratch pieces of it off.  Then I put a acetate frame from Tattered Angels around the small canvas to finish it off.

All of the other green and blue painted canvases were decorated with TSS metal using the same technique as above using the same colour metals to tie it all together.

So if you're still with me after reading that l-o-n-g post, here is your reward - the finished canvas which has pride of place on my wall!

Hope you've enjoyed this little look at my art.