"Wind in Your Sails"

($40.00.....6" x 6"....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"The wind in your sails is continuous prayer." There is a natural inclination, even among skeptics, to pray when threat of life or calamity enters a person's life. The big secret is that we can all have that supernatural wind in our sails when we pray to a Living God on a daily basis.

This is another collaboration between myself and Sue Costa. She prepared the board with molding paste and a bit of color and I took it from there. I revisited some of my old lino cuts. The one in this piece was originally used in a piece for a Shakespeare Exhibit.

There was no way to achieve a print on this textural surface so I turned to my silk tissue paper. Using Speedball Printing Ink, I mixed up blue, white, and a bit of brown and covered the lino cut using a brayer. The silk tissue paper was placed over the lino and gently pressed into the cut with a clean brayer. The paper was then sprayed with Spray Acrylic Coating. It was adhered to the surface by applying Gel Matte Medium straight from the jar onto the textural surface. The silk tissue was laid into the medium very carefully and gently pressed into place. Once again, this tissue paper molded right into the texture and the gray backgroud shows right through the paper.  It is completely integrated.

Placement of the ship and additional color gave me an edge to edge shape. I then used White Speedball Printing Ink to lighten the values in a few areas, creating another erratic, but edge to edge shape. The beauty of this printing ink is the ability to go back into it and blot with a damp tissue and remove parts of it to break up the surface. So it's actually a two step process. Brayer on the printing ink...dry...and then blot with the damp tissue. The surface can then be sprayed again with acrylic coating and then prepared to receive lettering. And there you have it! Another way to use silk tissue paper and a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.