I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Sunday 21 October 2012

Thank you for the music

Hello all, and a happy Sunday to you, wherever you are in the world.  So happy to have your company for a while here...

I'm listening to "Sunday music" as I type this, and sharing a canvas with you that, again, came out of playing while listening to music - as so many of my projects seem to have done recently.  So this piece also expresses some of my gratitude and joy for the great gift of music, and its inspiration.



I've been wanting to expand into canvases for some time - particularly inspired by the amazing Trish Latimer at Ink... Paint... Beads....  And I'm combining some of my favourite things again - my first love, stamping, especially with an inky, textured background and, in addition, the colour blue is quite a feature here.  



With the larger canvas I've been able to go a step further with the background, trying out some new techniques, and generally having a really good, messy muckabout!  I love the texture of the canvas showing through the ink and paint.  

It is, in fact, a canvas mountboard, 8 x 10, about £1 from The Range.  I thought it would be a good idea to find out if I enjoyed working on canvas with these cheaper versions before breaking into the piggy bank again for full canvases...  







Turns out I really love it!!  But I'm also perfectly happy to stick to the mountboard for now.  

I started by gluing down bits of book pages and music manuscript.  The print on these has mostly disappeared under the layers, but I still love that you see the edges, and that - thanks to the papers - there are places of smooth texture as well as the lovely rough canvas.





I then had a little play with some texture paste, and one of the lovely Tando masks I was lucky enough to win recently.  So cool, and so easy to get some really interesting texture onto the canvas.  And the mask is really good quality - it feels really strong as you use it. 

As well as scraping the paste through the mask, I also gave it a few cuts and strokes with an old credit card for added detail.  







In some places, I also just splodged some paste down, and then pressed onto it with an acrylic stamp block, lifting it straight up again to get these really cool textured patches.  

Of course, later it got extra definition from paint, ink and, in this case, some metallic Distress Stain in Pewter painted on with a brush.






I think it was at this point that I also grabbed some of the strings which are always lying around and stuck them on in little piles of random spaghetti.  They come off the cheap luggage tags I got.  

Sadly, I have now discovered that there really is a difference between them and the beautiful smooth Manila ones sold as craft tags - but I'm going to use up the ones I've got first!  Plus you get all these great strings to play with, of course...






I let all of that dry overnight, and in the morning I gave it a coat of gesso to knit it all together.  The next stage was some spritzing and spraying with Ranger Colorwash sprays as well as some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  

I also added Distress Inks, using a blending tool, and some Perfect Pearls mica powder in Pearl for shading and highlights.  As mentioned above, I also used a paintbrush to add some Pewter Distress Stain direct from my craft mat - again to get some metallic highlights in places.




I then went in with the stamps - the text from Tim Holtz's Apothecary set, the music from the Pink Paislee London Market set, and some flourishes from Whimsy which I then embossed with Weathered White embossing powder.  

The flourishes are positioned so that they "grow out of" the random spaghetti - order out of chaos!













The focal image is stamped - in my usual way - onto tissue paper, and then glued into place.  



I love this ballerina from The Stampsmith, and I'm so delighted with the way you can still see the text stamping and the textures coming through the tissue.  



She's deliciously ethereal anyway as an image, and I hope I've enhanced that by having her hovering within the canvas in such a ghostly fashion!  





Finally, there's the sentiment - and I do realise some of you may have had an Abba song running through your heads for the duration, but that wasn't really my intention (although I love Abba, I was actually listening to Prokoviev!)... it was just a simple statement of gratitude. 











The letters are the black plastic Random Alpha Parts from Idea-ology, altered with some paint, alcohol inks and Perfect Pearls.  


Slightly strange fizzing chemical reaction at one point, but I splodged some paper towel on to calm it down!!






Thanks so much for your visit.  I'd love to know what you make of my first 'proper' canvas; every single one of your comments is deeply appreciated.  I'm off to do some Sunday browsing to see what you've all been up to...  See you soon!

A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
Leopold Stokowski

Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm entering this in the following
Simon Says Stamp and Show... my Favourites are still stamping and inky backgrounds
The Stampsmith theme this month is With Gratitude, using a Stampsmith stamp
Unruly PaperArts are challenging us to Add Dimension to a Canvas

45 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the color and texture to this Alison. Music inspires me but I've never thought to putting that to paper which is why I love your blog so. Gorgeous creation!!! TFS and hope you have a wonderful week.
Hugs,
Lisa

Jan Hennings said...

Beautiful and great texture!

Anonymous said...

They are so useful to have, I purchase them from Dunelm and you will see me use them time and time again.
The blue has the dreamiest of qualities to it as though we are floating along with the music.
Gorgeous.
Wishes
Lynne

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Lovely textural canvas Alisom. I love your use of texture paste, string and book pages. The focal image is lovely and I love,the shadow of colour around it. Love the letters too. Tracy x

Terry said...

Alison, this is a beautiful canvas! I love the texture and colors and thank you for sharing the close up photos! Love this! Hope you have a wonderful Sunday or rest of it!!

House of Bears said...

You know what's really odd? Cedric has Abba blasting out in the living room while he's decorating, just as we pressed our paw on your blog.!

As usual, we are in awe of your creativity. We have a mini canvas we may just play with. Love the string for texture, and of course the texture mask (think we actually have that one.) the flourishes emanating from the string are truly inspired, we thought you'd created them with some sort of relief string stamping technique at first.

Astrid Maclean said...

Fantastic canvas Alison, the textures are wonderful as is the colour!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alison
I am returning with my Stampsmith cap on this time.
It is very special that you took our challenge theme and made it all your own. With music being so incredibly special to you it is a beautiful way to acknowledge your gratitude in the form of the canvas.
It is sumptuous.
Thank you for sharing with us at TSC and good luck with the Prize Draw.
Wishes
Lynne

Lisa Minckler said...

Alison, I can almost hear the music as my eyes dance all over this canvas. The swaying about of the twine gives textural sway to the melody and what an incredible stamped image on tissue paper. The detail is incredible. You can acutally see the tulle pattern of her tutu...I love it! A beautiful work of art!
hugs,
Lisa xx

JoZart Designs said...

Terrific piece with gorgeous texture, colour tones and balance. Love it!
JoZarty

Mrs.B said...

Hi Alison, Stunning canvas, absolutely love all the textures, even the colours create there own depth and texture. Love the image, and stamped on the tissue, looks so fragile.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Avril xx

Jenny Marples said...

What a great first canvas! Love the different textures you've achieved, and by using one main colour it really brings it all together. Looking forward to future works of art. Hugs, Buttons x

Janny Jager said...

Lovely canvas Alison
Great textures and colors.
Love it

Greetings Janny

Alison said...

Your canvas is so beautiful & inspiring Alison, I love colour & textures on it.

Brenda Brown said...

Beautifully created Alison. Such wonderful texture and colour, an inspiration in itself.
hugs {brenda} xox

Paper Profusion said...

The blue is mesmerizing. It has such depth I feel that I could almost sink into it! A beautiful piece. Nicola x

Anonymous said...

Beautiful project Alison, I love the colour and the image of the dancer is magical ! Sue C x

Netty said...

Can see you have been having fun, with good results. This type of canvas is great for all sorts of projects. x

sam21ski said...

This is gorgeous Alison, and you have sooooo many textures going on - lovely

Sam xxx

Redanne said...

How lovely to transfer your musical thoughts onto canvas - and what a brilliantly beautiful result. The lady is very ethereal and ghost-like which just adds to the charm of your canvas. I think you should do many, many more Alison, you are a natural..... Crafty hugs, Anne x

Krisha said...

Love, Love, Love this canvas!

Anonymous said...

i love the softness of this, so lovely!

chrissie said...

Wonderful [piece and your joy of music shines through. Lots of great techniques as well

Love Chrissie xx

Andrea Small said...

I love the different textures on this and the variations in shimmer. It's a wonderful example of different elements knitting together to make a whole. The ballerina is splendidly suspended - she really is dancing! And the strings put in mind of discarded ballet shoes - cast aside they are just shoes, but put them on the feet of a dancer they are transformed into the dance. Lovely. x

Sandra said...

this is so beautiful! Love all the different textures! The dancer is just wonderful! Thank you so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. Hugs, Sandra

gayle said...

I absolutely love this, the texture is amazing :)

catherine said...

This looks so fantastic Alison and so much texture - I love it and the colour is beautiful. Great to find you on G45 too as friend
x catherine

Anonymous said...

Fabulous! Great texture and a wonderful etheral quality to the whole piece! Thanks for questing with us at UPA!

Anna-Karin said...

Beautiful canvas Alison! Love all the gorgeous textures and great stamped details. Stunning colours and a great sentiment. Thank so much for sharing another piece with us at Simon Says Stamp and Show!

JoZart Designs said...

I forgot to add when I left my comment that my new TH cargo box is super for organising inks and bottles, especially when I'm demonstrating as it has cantilevered trays... however, I've only twice taken it out of the house and one of the locks dropped off at the crop. Quite a disappointment so watch out and check it if you decide to buy.
Jo x

May said...

Breathtaking beauty Alison... AmAzing work... love it all! the textures, stamping, Colours, Design & Detail.... WOW!!! Hugs May x x x

Silvia(Barnie) said...

I'm missing words, such a fabulous canvas, love the colors, the texture and all the elements.

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

Mahoosively fabulous!!!! The the texture is fab!!! Love the use of string and paste!!! Awesome theme!!! Might be a new favorite!!!

Karen McAlpine said...

Love how you added so much texture to your canvas...the string, the squares!! And, the stamping on tissue is so lovely and soft. Thank you for sharing your beautiful piece with us at the Stampsmith Challenge!!!

Unknown said...

lovely textures,and I also love the fact that your canvas is monochromatic!1

Di said...

What a fabulous canvas, I love all the textures you have created. Thank you so much for sharing.
Di @ Tando Creative Ltd.

Kezzy said...

Stunning canvas, I really love the blues you use and all the texture is amazing. I have bought Trish Latimers DVD and have only watched a little bit so far when I was ironing. I turned it off as it was so good I wanted to get crafting but I had to finish what I was doing. Think I might pop it back on and have some creative play :-). Hugs Kerry xxx

Bärbel said...

Wow, der Hintergrund mit seiner großartigen Textur und die wunderbar gestaltete Leinwand ergeben ein tolles Gesamtbild, das mich sofort begeisterte!

Laura said...

Great textures. Love the addition of the string. Thanks for joining us at UPA.

Valerie H. Marshall said...

Oh, Alison, how dreamy! There are so many beautiful details on this stunning piece! Thank you for sharing it with us for The Stampsmith Challenge!
Val :)

Marjie Kemper said...

Where is the *love* button??? This is one of my favorites of yours! The different textures (so many... a real treat to take in) and the gorgeous colors are calling me in. I just adore this canvas!

Melisa Waldorf said...

Just hopped over from Unruly to tell you how fabulous your canvas is!! I LOVE that your canvas is monochromatic but you have built so much interest with all the different texture!!

Electra said...

This is your first?! It's stunning! I love all the details!

Linda said...

Alison, I love love love the colors you chose. The background is wonderful, so much texture... I want to touch it.

Nan G said...

I had to revisit this piece after seeing it highlighted on Unruly Paper Arts. Congrats on the shout out from them! The dimension and texture are amazing. Your first canvas you say?! Which reminds me, I was to find some tissue paper so I can try your technique of stamping and using the image. All n all very inspiring!