Heavy Metal

Hi everyone. Happy February!

As it is a new month it is time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month our host is the lovely Valerie, and her challenge is called Heavy Metal.

My page began with me using up some bright pink paint on a sheet of watercolor paper. On the left side of the page I used a stencil to trace out the prairie style window.  I don't know a lot about Prairie Style architecture, but my stencil has a great layout of shapes. It's a Stencil Girl stencil, and here's what it says about prairie style on their website.

The style itself was in turn inspired by the broad, flat landscape of the American Midwest and was the first uniquely American style of architecture. (FYI, The Frederick C. Robie house, constructed in 1909, was perhaps Frank Lloyd Wright’s ultimate Prairie Style masterpiece.) 

And from the internet (Architecture.org):

The Prairie style emerged in Chicago around 1900 from the work of a group of young architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. These architects melded the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, with its emphasis on nature, craftsmanship and simplicity, and the work and writings of architect Louis Sullivan.

You can read more here  Architecture.org if you are interested.

I  used some metallic Sharpie markers to color in the blocks of the stencil. 

On the right side of the page I used a bit of gesso and a paper towel to sponge on some white to give the pink some texture. Then I used a texture stamp and black ink on top of that and around the border of the whole page.

I used some left over bits of spotted acetate in my stash to highlight the girl. She is a TH Found Relative.  I colored her dress like a tie-dye pattern to give her some texture.

I used some TH phrase stickers for the quote.

A few weeks ago I went through some loose old journal pages and organized them as they were just sitting in 2 big bins taking up floor space. (They are now neatly enveloped and put on a shelf- hurrah.) I pulled out a few pages I wasn't crazy about and have started to chop them up to use in other art. That is where these sunflowers came from.

I chose sunflowers because they are especially plentiful on the prairie (to match my prairie style window stenciled image) and also because I love them.  The centers of  these are made with bronze colored mini-beads. Like my metallic colored blocks, these are metallic looking bits for Valerie's Heavy Metal challenge.

Hope you like my first page for the new month. I love the idea of using metal bits and metallic colors in my challenges this month.  Hopefully I'll see you over at  Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting.