Every piece of art being created is so much more than the visual outcome alone...it's the journey not the destination.

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Medicine For My Lemon Man

"Medicine For My Lemon Man" is an oil on 14.5 x 20cm gesso'ed board.  I put my shadow box in action this week and did a still life set-up of whisky, honey and a lemon.  I have drawn from life before, but never painted anything from life, so this was a first for me.  I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process.  
The story behind the painting...Recently my husband, Adrian was horribly sick with flu and his best friend, whom lives just around the corner from us, made him a 'Hot Toddy' for the flu. Well I am sure the 'Hot Toddy' did the trick and that gave me the idea to paint the ingredients.
So I asked Adrian on one fine day, when he was feeling a lot better, to please pop into the shop on his way home from work and buy me a lemon. I said to him that it must not just be any lemon...it must please be a beautiful lemon, one that is firm, smooth (not the rough skinned ones) and beautifully shaped. I have such a sweet husband! He got to the fruit and vegetable section and looked through the lemons. He did not find one to his satisfaction and my description. He asked one of the assistants in the section if they have any great looking lemons, as he really needs a beautiful lemon for his wife. Now I did not mention to him that I would like to use it in a still life set-up and paint it, however knowing how my brain works he figured it out already.smile emoticon
The assistant in the department went to fetch a box out of the cooler room and my sweet darling husband went through the lemons until he found the perfect one...actually he bought two.
Excitement over the little things in life ~ As he got home and handed me the lemons with a big smile while telling me the story, I had the most wonderful feeling of excitement, butterflies in my tummy as if he just gave me the biggest diamond in the world. So since then I call him my Lemon Man. Together we will make Lemonade.




Tuesday 19 April 2016

Easy Fold-away Shadow Box

A couple of years ago I built a shadow box from thick polystyrene sheets, however the sides were all glued together, it was bulky and not very practical.  When this shadow box was not in use, it was in the way as my studio was not very big then...not that my studio is big now, in actual fact it is even smaller now.

Last week I decided to build another shadow box.  I really wanted it not to be too heavy or bulky and I need to be able to put it away without taking up too much space.  I decided to make use of hardboard, which I had pre-cut pieces of already for future paintings and were all different sizes...thus I just used what I had at hand.  I still needed to get some hinges to join them together to make a fold-away box.  

I had to take some paintings through to a gallery the weekend before last and thought that I will pop in at the hardware store on the way back to buy some hinges for my shadow box.  While driving home, I really did not feel like popping into the hardware store as I was eager to get home.  My mind kept thinking of an alternative solution for the hinges.  Sometimes some great ideas comes to mind while driving, I am sure you have had the same experience too. Out of the blue a solution to the 'hinge problem' came to mind and was very excited about the idea.

What I really love about this Shadow Box is that when it is folded up it hardly takes up any space at all.

Unfortunately I did not take photographs as I progressed, only thought of a blog post after the initial stages.

This is how I built my Shadow Box

What I used:

* 1 x 60 x 80 cm Hardboard sheet - Backing
* 4 x 40 x 50 cm Hardboard sheets - 2 sheets for the sides and 2 sheets for the base
* "Hinges" - Canvas sheet already primed that comes in a book form and this I cut into wide strips... about 10 cm wide, but 5cm will be sufficient too I think.

Note:  You can choose your own hardboard sheet sizes. 

You will need (including the above):
* Acrylic Gel (any brand will do)

* Hard Rubber Roller

* Couple of A4 sheets of paper (this is to cover the canvas strips when using the roller so that the gel medium does not stick to the roller)
* Matt Black Acrylic paint (house paint is perfect)
*Brushes to apply the Gel Medium and Matt Black Acrylic paint.


I placed the 60 x 80 cm hardboard sheet, with the longer side horizontally, flat on the kitchen counter.  On each side of this 60 x 80 cm hardboard sheet I placed one 40 x 50 cm hardboard sheet with the 50 cm side matching the 60cm side of the main backing sheet of hardboard.  I pushed the three sheets tightly together.  I painted gel medium about the width of the canvas strips on the left  'joint'.  I placed the canvas strips immediately on top of the wet gel medium.  Laid an A4 sheet of paper on top of the canvas strip and used the hard rubber roller, pressing hard as I rolled it over the canvas strip section on the board to iron out any air bubbles and to spread the acrylic medium evenly.  I then remove the A4 sheet of paper.  I repeat this on the right hand side "joint" as well.  I leave this flat for a while so that the gel medium gets a chance to set completely.  It took about half an hour more or less.

In the photograph below you can see what it looked like when I lifted it up and folded the sides inwards.

In the above picture you will also notice the 4 canvas hinges.  The four hinges is sufficient to keep the 3 pieces together, however there was still a thin slither of light coming through the sections between the canvas strips on each side.  To solve this I just glued more canvas strips on the sections in between the original hinges, which you will be able to see in the completed shadow box.

In the photograph below you can see what the shadow box looks like when the sides are folded inwards completely.  You will also get an idea of how little space it will take up when stored for example behind a door.
In the middle the stripe on the left is where the left and right sides meet together when folded inwards. (The line on the right of that is just a mark on the board)

I put the other 2 hardboard sheets of 40 x 50 cm next to one another with the 40 cm sides together to form the base.  I glued the canvas strips in the same way as the shadow box itself and let it dry.

I placed some plastic protection (big plastic rubbish bag cut open will do fine and is what I used) on your work surface.  Place the board on top of this plastic sheet, just like it is in the picture below and folded open, but turn it upside down so that the back faces you...both left and right sides folded out.  So it will look again like it did in the beginning, but face down.

I then painted the back with one coat of Matt Black Acrylic paint, let it dry.  Once completely dry I turned it around and kept it flat and opened up, then painted the entire inside with the Matt Black Acrylic. Let this dry completely.  I repeated this same procedure with the base section.

The reason why I paint the back of the boards is due to the fact that with hardboard when one side is painted, it tends to buckle slightly.  When you paint both sides, it 'straightens' the buckle when the other side gets painted.

This is the end result of the Shadow Box all set up and ready for a still life arrangement.  The Shadow Box fits perfectly over the loose base section. 

Even my one cat, Joey tried to test the Shadow Box out before it was all set up.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

Happy building