2015 #16 Stencilled Circles {by Ruth Mescall}

Topic 16: Circles

Hi everyone, Ruth here from a love to create joining you this evening with a post about ‘ever decreasing circles’ using lovely fresco paints and grunge paste. To me the possibilities of using circles in art are endless and I was partly inspired by a couple of quilt designs I’d seen that used circles and lines of stitching. I wanted the finished piece to have texture and dimension so chose grunge paste which is a lovely stone colour to start with. I decided to stick to a neutral colour palette with a touch of treasure gold to create my piece of wall art! 

Step One: Firstly I coated a piece of grey board with gesso. Once dry I created a brayered background using Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint in Snowflake, Chalk, Nougat and Stone. Then some stamping in paint and antique linen distress ink with Eclectica (Ellen Vargo) Collection (EEV06) and (EEV02). I also masked off 3 thin vertical lines which I stencilled with snowflake paint

EEV02

EEV06

Step Two: I die cut several decreasing (or increasing!) sizes of circles out of acetate. I would use these to stencil paint through and also create my focal points of Grunge Paste stamped circles. After spreading a layer of paste through the acetate I left it in place whilst I stamped the image, this gave a crisper outline. I used images from Eclectica (Lin Brown) Collection (ELB15) and (ELB16) and moistened the stamp first.

ELB15

ELB16

Step Three: Using the same paints plus Taupe I built circles up on the board. I stencilled the large circle first and then positioned the 3 grunge paste circles. The rest of the circles in varying sizes and colours filled in the gaps. Tiny circles and grunge paste motifs were made using PaperArtsy Stencils by Lin Brown (PS001) (PS002) and (PS005).

Step Four: The tiny grunge paste circles had a layer of taupe underneath and then the grunge paste layer was bumped to give some shading. It’s starting to come together now.

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Step 5: The final step is to use Treasure Gold in Florentine to highlight all the texture. I rubbed my finger over the areas rather than a brush. As you can see treasure gold picks up every single bit of texture from the grunge paste.

My favourite elements are the almost fossil like impressions from Lin’s stamps and when you add treasure gold…yummy! I also love the idea of masking an area off to create a defined shape for grunge paste before stamping into it, why not try squares or ovals instead, or stencilled paint circles in vibrant colours? Hope you’ll be inspired to join in with the challenge, there’s still time to explore the possibilities of circles.

Ruth x

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This is stunning Ruth, so delicate and beautiful. Those Grunge Paste circles remind me of Sand Dollars. The crisp outlines really define the shapes and provide excellent contrast between all the neutral shades. Thanks for joining us this evening ~Darcy

Did you know that you can play along with us on the PaperArtsy blog to share and explore with us how you interpret the current theme. The current topic is Circles, and if you are inspired by any of our contributors on the blog this fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE.

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Circles challenge link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Sept 6th, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.