Mark Making Tools for Paintings

On the right, forsythia twigs cut on an angle. They are usually hollow inside so will hold some ink or paint and make good pens.
On the left  and below second on the left is a brush I made using some dried ornamental grass stalks cut from the garden. They are taped to a forsythia twig with masking tape and make some nice grassy effects in a painting.

Above  I have had some teasels growing in the garden. They got up to about 4 ft. I left them over winter for the birds to take the seeds. When I cut them down I saw that the stems were hollow and larger than the forsythia stems and might make some interesting marks.

Above from the top going clockwise, pieces of old credit type cards whole or cut down make great tools for spreading acrylic paint.
A fork or comb are good for scratching back into wet acrylic paint.
The corks can be used for printing either as they are or with nails or string added. I made these for use with batik wax or they can be used with acrylics.

My acrylic painting below was mainly done with the credit card and the fork.

Elizabeth's Irises

 

                                           Elizabeth's Irises     Acrylic with washi paper and gold
                                           (c) Tessa Spanton

A few years ago Elizabeth, a good friend and artist gave me a piece of iris rhizome from her garden.
It flowered the first year and has continued to spread and flourish. one year it even flowered twice so is what iris growers call remontant. It has to be staked as it's to heavy for its own good and keels over, otherwise it has thrived on near neglect.
There were so many blooms this year so I picked some and brought them into the house. The fragrance is fantastic!
I am not painting flowers much now but I had some in my studio and they were crying out to be painted.
I have just finished the Art2Life Creative Visionary programme. This painting came at the time we were exploring texture and collage. The first layers of paint were put on with a brush, crumpled up kitchen roll and an old credit card. The flowers were painted on top.
I have a collection of Japanese washi paper, gifts from my Japanese friends. I cut and tore pieces and played around with positioning them. I kept changing my mind. I stayed undecided and it sat unfinished for a couple of weeks until last night when I went for it and stuck them on.
To finish I added Shminke gold over the collage and some of the flowers while watching The Kitchen Table Art Project 2020 (KTAP) live last night at 8pm UK time. #kitchentableartproject as the subject was flowers and gardens.
I will frame it in either a grey or a white frame, both waiting in the wings for me to choose.

KTAP was started by Nicholas Wilton during lockdown on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube It was weekly and continues though now not weekly. For more info click here
All KTAP episodes have been recorded and can be found on Youtube and PDFs are available with content information. I particularly enjoyed last night's episode. I liked the work of both artists featured and as a keen gardener enojoyed seeing and learning about Nicholas Wilton's fantastic biodynamic garden. A regular highlight is when Ferris mixes a cocktail. Last night's was a lavender gin cocktail. As I grow lavender and the first plant has just come into flower I will be giving this one a try. I poured myself a Sipsmith sloe gin. Cheers!

Iris Botanical Ink

                                                    'Iris with bud'     iris botanical ink

I painted this while the Kitchen Table Art Project was live on Wed 3rd June #kitchentableartproject
This project began during lockdown and was weekly. It continues but no longer weekly. details and PDFs with info are available from the link above. They have been recorded and are on Youtube
I also worked on another iris painting, that will be in the next post.

It has been a good year for irises in my garden. I bought Iris Titan's Glory some years ago as I read that it performs and lasts really well. It's taken a long time to get going, maybe I should have split the clump sooner and given it more tlc. I split the clump into 3 last year and each piece has produced  lots of flowers so worth the wait. Its a tall and very fragrant bearded iris.

When the flowers went over the colour became more concentrated. The photo shows the dye that oozed out onto a paper towel.

 

The greenish areas are where I added some salt.

 I had a go at making some iris ink. I did 2 small batches. For the first one I steeped the spent flowers in surgical spirit for a day or 2 and drained of the liquid into a little pot. The smell isn't great. I went on a herbal course long ago and remember making a calendula tincture using vodka so I used that for the second batch, the smell of this extract is wonderful. I am not a fan of vodka and much prefer Champagne or a G&T

Please note If you make it don't be tempted to put it in a cocktail as iris flowers are toxic.

The image at the top of the post shows the ink painted onto Saunders Waterford paper and the colour has stayed vivid.

Below The paper used makes a difference.

below
I also tried it on  a cheaper watercolour paper. The colour was good when I first touched it to the paper but became more greyed down losing the saturation of colour and the ink sat in puddles.

The ink made with surgical spirit came out rather grey on paper.
For my next experiment I will take a little ink and add salt to see if I can get a green for the iris leaves.
I don't suppose the ink will be very colourfast but fun to use for greetings cards. Or you could experiment with a layer of UV protection painted over it but not something i have ever tried.