Resin Experiments

​
One media I explored last year was resin! Initially it was to use the resin as a protective, shiny coating over my mixed media batik artwork. Of course mixing up the exact amount of resin is pretty rare and I tend to err on the side of excess. The excess became a playground for me to experiment & manipulate – with some successes and, of course, some “learning opportunities” as well.

• 

• 

• 

Eventually I was mixing and blending inks, pigments and other materials in, on & around clear resin and manipulating it to form organic designs. Some of the creations are on a wood surface, some on acrylic pieces. The ones shared here are all on flat 10″ round wood panels, which I added wood pieces to the back for hanging making them appear to “float” on the wall. They are currently for sale at B3 Gallery in Nashville, Indiana.

• 

• 

• 

Although there is much exploring left to do I’ve not created any new resin art pieces lately…I am sure at some point in my random creativity I will return to it! Below is a close up detail of another resin piece…I love looking into them, it’s almost like looking into another universe!

Happy creating to you!

Lynne

Yupo Play Images

I’m blushing a bit at how long it took to get these photos online and posted! These are all from a “Yupo Play” class last March! Better late than never I suppose. We had a good time exploring this interesting “paper” which is synthetic and machine-made in the USA of 100% polypropylene. It is waterproof, stain resistant, extremely strong and durable, PH neutral, amazingly smooth and Recyclable!  Here are a few images from the class:

“mash up” two pieces of damp Yupo paper & watercolor “mashed” between them, then taken apart

One side of a “mash up” watercolor & Yupo paper

These were fun and reminded me of a more colorful/interesting version of the ink blot images we used to make as kids – we could all see different things in them! What do you see in the image above? I’m curious if it’s the same as what I do.

One thing we attempted wasn’t very successful, but that’s what happens in a class titled “play” – we were experimenting with media, not aiming for masterpieces. 🙂 The technique was to take the paper outside and use stencils, lace, etc. and spray a clear acrylic paint over them to leave a pattern that would be blocked out in white when we added the watercolor. It probably didn’t help that it was a windy day and we had spray paint issues! You can see in this image that there was a bit of success but even that eventually disappeared as more watercolor was added.

stencil dots on Yupo paper

stencil stripes on Yupo paper

Oh well! Perhaps a repeat on a non-windy day will have better results. 🙂

Washing on a layer of watercolors and then laying plastic wrap on top made for some really interesting abstract patterns. Well, if you were patient enough to let it dry before you took the plastic off!

plastic wrap over watercolor on Yupo paper

rolling paint with a brayer

We had so much fun moving the paint around on the paper that even our paper towels ended up looking colorful!

palette, paint, paper towel

The last technique we tried involved tissue paper layers on painted Yupo. Some were removed, others were kept, some moved to new placement and were adhered to the paper with clear acrylic gel.

tissue paper collaged on Yupo

And, yes, it was as much fun as it looks – you should come try it sometime. 🙂

Fisheyes and Film

In a recent post I mentioned that I’ve been playing with film (yes, the stuff we used to put in our cameras before memory cards!) and some cool little cameras.

“shadow self portrait” © lynne medsker

I finally got the film developed and scanned and thought it would be fun to share with you a few of the images. The images for today are from one of the cameras I bought to play with, it’s the Lomo Fisheye #2, and I must say it’s lots of fun! Seeing the world in circular form is interesting, trying to capture it that way? Even more so!

“playing in the sand” © lynne medsker

These images were all taken on a day trip to Cataract Falls here in Indiana.

part of the lower falls © lynne medsker

Since we brought our grandson he’s the subject of several of the images. That usually happens when he’s around!

“found a shell!” © lynne medsker

He was very interested in both the little cameras I brought with me and, at a recent event, took over the fisheye camera and burned through all the film. 🙂 I need to remember to give him the digital next time – it’s free for him to play with it! I’ll be curious to see what he captured though…I love that he’s already into taking photos at age 5!

the little man with his Poppy © lynne medsker

You need a lot of sunlight or a high speed film to get good captures with this camera, which they tell you but it really was evident by what turned out and what didn’t. You can also take off the viewfinder and use the hot shoe underneath to add a flash…I haven’t tried that yet! These were all taken on 400 speed film. The second rolls that was just finished off had 1600 speed film, I’m hoping that was enough to be able to catch some good indoor shoots at a couple of parties we went to.  Guess we will see! Just for fun I removed the viewfinder from the fisheye camera and held it over the lens of my smart phone – this is what I got:

fish eye on phone © lynne medsker

Kind of fun – although (obviously) it was hard to hold it there and not get my finger in the image!

As you can tell, right now I am just haven’t fun playing…hope you are having some fun this summer too!

Peace,

Lynne

Watercolor Experiments!

student work, abstract watercolor technique class, 1/11/12

We had a great time yesterday playing with watercolors! After some talk about composition and the different types of watercolor papers & surfaces we started to play.

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

Color, texture and fun was going on everywhere!

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

As a matter of fact we had so much fun playing there’s a class scheduled for NEXT Wednesday, January 18th from noon to 3 p.m.!  We’ll be switching it up for that class and playing with acrylic paints and texturing materials. I’ve got three openings left, want to join in?  Send me an email!

work in progress, watercolor class 1/11/12