"Beauty"

(unavailable.....in the collection of dee day.....5" x 5"....Acrylics on Canvas....mounted on a clayboard.)

"Bandage your heart with beauty." There are only two things that pierce the heart....beauty and affliction. This piece was cropped from a larger one where the word beauty was written a bit "wonky", but it works with this quote, especially with the three cross stitches underneath. When our hearts are in need of healing, beauty is the healing balm.

The original larger piece was painted with acrylics and palette knife on canvas. I always liked the colors, but not the entire piece so I cropped it to this smaller 5" x 5" version and added the one line quote with pointed pen and gouache. The surface was prepared to receive lettering by brushing on (2) parts water to (1) part gel matte medium. It's tricky because at first the medium will not want to attach to the slick surface. By securing the piece to a surface...you can cause it to adhere to the piece by holding a hair dryer in one hand and brushing with the other. (I've mentioned this many times before, but here it is again in case you like to letter over acrylic paint or metal leaf.)

 Besides the palette knife texture, I particularly like to stitch through canvas to create more texture. There are many other ways to do this. For instance, I have seen special effects with yarns and threads and beads hanging from a support. The only caution that comes to mind is to make sure it fits perfectly with your colors and concept or it will look very contrived.

In the case of stitching and then painting over it, the integration is complete and the surprise element of the stitching is always appealing to the viewer. If you like extreme texture, you can also stitch on another piece of fabric and paint over the whole piece to get another effect. These types of texture do work well in all kinds of concepts, but are particularly effective to get a "moody" ethereal look going on. I cannot almost hear those of you on my art team at church coming up with all kinds of ideas. Just make sure it's convincing. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.