LIM DT: Music

Posted on 30th September 2023 by perfectly4med

Theme week at Less is More, and we’ve been set ‘music’. Despite the fact I play the clarinet, massacre a tenor sax piece and know where the notes are on a piano, I’d not say I was a musician! (Just ask how well I can play a syncopated rhythm…) I’m also not an avid listener of music – it is on in the background for most of my working day but I don’t choose to listen to it in my down time. So this theme was a bit of a challenge until I realised just how many ‘classic’ music-themed stamps and embellishments I had in my stash. This is my design team card for your inspiration, but don’t forget to check out the rest of the cards the team have created.

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Art Journal Page: Hexagonal Monoprinting

Posted on 8th August 2018 by perfectly4med

It has been a little while since I have had my gel plates out, so I thought it was time to play a little with monoprinting into my journal. The experimentation was also inspired by the delivery of several texture printing plates made from rubber from Carabelle Studio. These are designed to be used with gel plates, and have text the right way round rather than a mirror image as found on rubber stamps. This means that text is monoprinted the right way round, and if used as background stamps in art journals, for example, it’s the wrong way round. The texture plates are very easy to use – just lay them across a painted gel plate, lift and then print with the gel plate.

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3D Printing: Karaoke Cuboidroid

Posted on 9th January 2018 by perfectly4med

I made this chap a while back, and he’s been crooning away on the desk ever since waiting for the flashbulbs to go off. His five minutes of fame have arrived, his gigs in the pubs and clubs paid off. May I present my karaoke cuboidroid?

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Commission: These Boots

Posted on 8th September 2017 by perfectly4med

Building on my recent commissions, I’ve had another commission to do a further painting. This one is to distract from the side of a cupboard installed in a boot (utility) room. The picture will be face-on as you enter the room from the kitchen area.

So when it came to subject matter, it seemed obvious to use the boot as a theme. Wellingtons aren’t particularly in keeping with the area, but being on the edge of Snowdonia, walking/hiking boots seemed very apt. I’m fond of the recent trend toward including typography in images, and a classic lyric popped into my head…

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Altered Art: Decorated Tree Decoration

Posted on 3rd December 2016 by perfectly4med

This is another of my specially designed tree decorations for today’s workshop in The Studio (candy cane one here if you missed it). The workshop has just finished, so you’ve missed out! Cut out from card and pushed onto a split-pin clothes peg, I’ve decorated with DecoArt Media fluid acrylics, Ranger Stickles and Liquid Pearls.

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Altered Art: Tealight Holders Part II

Posted on 18th November 2016 by perfectly4med

I previously posted an advert for October’s workshop in The Studio featuring an altered MDF tealight holders Now, it’s that time of year when the church Christmas Fayre is just ten days away. I still have a box full of holders left over. So, over the last couple of days I’ve been sponging acrylics, metallics and glass paints over MDF and acetate and waiting for spray gloss varnish to stop being tacky. I’m now making bespoke packaging for each of these individual gifts:

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Art Journal Page: Diamond Glints

Posted on 27th October 2016 by perfectly4med

I started this page layout on Tuesday night as my teaching sample for my ‘Christmas Crackle’ art journal session on 7th November. Building up layers and techniques, I was very happy with the resulting background. I then spent just as many hours searching for the perfect ‘winter’ quote. Eventually I settled on this excerpt from ‘Do not stand at my grave and weep’ attributed to Mary Frye.

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Altered Art: Tealight holders

Posted on 14th July 2016 by perfectly4med

I’m prepping samples for workshops leading up to Christmas at The Studio to include on my Workshops page and in a future newsletter. First up, in October, we will be altering MDF tealight holders using mixed media techniques – basically anything sticky, inky or painty is a go!

The purpose of this post however, is to demonstrate a bit of behind the scenes work that goes into preparing a workshop. I’m not really an artist that meticulously plans what I am going to do on paper… I’m much more a wade in and see what happens (admittedly having thought about it for a while in between other things). Most times, the work turns out as I’d like. Other times, there’s something that niggles.

This is the starting point – a MDF block with holes drilled in ready for the tealights. Quick gesso undercoat to seal, and then I layered up paint and varnishes to create faux-granite.

So – above is version one. Ornamented with frosted glass stars the granite finish looks fairly convincing (the metallic flecks show up better in real life). But the frosted glass flame shields just didn’t seem to work. Too informal? Too tall? After a little more pondering I decided to create a new flame shield design, with simple lines to give a more formal look. The result below shows a much more cohesive end result, with a 1920s feel, and one which I’d be happy to allow to leave The Studio for pastures new.

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Altered Art: Peace

Posted on 11th July 2016 by perfectly4med

This is another art piece I made for the DecoArt shows last month. It didn’t get much screen time though, so I thought I would share it here. I think I made full use of the media and particularly the stencils. I wanted to do something a little different to the serenity type of peace, so I went for the hippy-free-love-peace-man vibe!
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Altered Art: Dream

Posted on 5th July 2016 by perfectly4med

I chose to keep this little piece of altered art under wraps until I’d featured it on my DecoArt TV shows on Hochanda early last month. I’d also left the originals with John the floor manager/set designer to use, and had to make a second set with what was left of my prepped demos. Building on the 6½” high paper-mâché letter forms, I’ve used a lot of mixed media tricks to make this home decor piece. Continue reading →