Do some art with me

I had a trip to Sydney yesterday to the annual Craft Fair at Darling Harbour. Because I live in a tiny bush town with only a minimal amount of shops my 1 or 2 pilgrimages a year to craft shows are a significant way  to top up on resources, see what the new fads and trends are and to get inspired from seeing stuff I like.

My main purchases were felting fibre, machine embroidery threads and heaps of stencils. Its so pleasing to see stencilling making a bit of a revival lately. Its such a versatile and useful technique for artisans doing mixed media textile art.

In my most recent blogs I showed pictures of the collaborative artworks Rodney and I have been creating. He does the focal portraits and I do the stencilled decorative borders.While writing this this afternoon I noticed how similar this Frida Kahlo poster is to the pictures Rodney and I have been making. This poster has been on my office wall for a couple of years and I believe it is a coloured ink drawing originally done by Frida in her diary.




The image to the right of the Frida Kahlo illustration is the picture Rodney gave me for my birthday. It was the first one I decorated with a stencilled border and we liked it so much we were inspired to make some more. I haven't yet put my birthday picture on a stretcher, this canvas measures about 48x60cm.

Here is a picture of the new stencils bought at the craft fair. I couldn't wait to play with them today and raced down to the studio after getting out of bed at 11am, after Rodney had served me with chai tea and french toast with yoghurt and blueberries and after having read most of the weekend papers. After all I was cruelly ripped from bed at 4am on Saturday morning to get down to Sydney in the cold and rain....

stencils bought at art show, plus 2 cork stamps at top right

Because I'm really enthusiastic about stencilling at the moment I want to use my next blogs over a week or 2 to write and illustrate 3-4 step by step tutorials on how to use stencils.

Below is a new lovely portrait Rodney has done that I'll use to show in detail how to create layer by layer a decorative border with paint and stencils.

Lessons will begin tomorrow.