More Gelatin Prints ... and more.

THE gelatin prints came rolling off the assembly line this Sunday when JoAnn and I got together for printing fun.
We had four or five trays of gelatin in various shapes and sizes.
I made one in a cookie pan with that was too soft and a couple others that worked just fine. One was leftover gelatin in a pizza pan and I didn't think I would use it much, but I did like its shape and "feel" after a while. And I still used the one Dawn had made for Creative Circle last Saturday. It began to develop a crack similar to the San Andreas Fault eventually, but Dawn, we really got your money's worth out of it before I was through.
JoAnn tried making a "ghost print" with damp watercolor paper and the result was astonishingly beautiful, as you can see above. Ready for framing!
Here in my circular pizza pan gelatin I put color and laid down flowers, put on the paper and pressed, peeled it away; picked up the flowers and then did the ghost print on the same piece. I then daubed gold paint with bubble wrap only around in a circle and laid it down again to pick that up and set off the pink.
And here are clematis leaves and vines - negative image. Color! It's all fun! Fun therapy!
We rolled our brayers through several colors of paint and tried different types of paper. We could see how bits and parts might be masked off to achieve other results - and preserve other effects you don't want to cover up. I didn't get a picture of the print JoAnn made by cutting away portions of the gelatin to make a multi-color picture of pears.
Now that I'm feeling that wonderful, good tired of a weekend of visiting with family and friends and doing plenty of art, I don't know that I'm really ready for Monday and I should go to bed early ... if I was smart, that is.
Last photo on right is of the pizza pan with a circle of clear gelatin, paint and a paper circle to act as a mask. The paper didn't pick up the paint there and it created the impression of a moon floating within a much larger circle of color - femminismo

Off On Another Exciting Journey!

I HAVEN'T worn green fingernail polish since the 1960s, but tonight my fingernails are every color but red!
I pulled out a heavy piece of Arches watercolor paper - I was "saving" it for something important - and now that time is here ... I guess. I've been having fun since Sunday gooping on the color and rubbing around with my secret "paintbrush."
It's been very therapeutic and strange things have emerged. Up at the left is the beginning with my shadow foreshadowing the happenings. (There would indeed be a figure in the painting, albeit smaller.) And those lumps around my middle in the shadow? Apron pockets stuffed with paper towels - I swear!
And so the swirls of paint begin to accumulate and blend and get mixed and remixed. (Again with the shadows, due to the western sky coming through the window full of plants.) Hmmm. Greens, browns, yellows.
The only color I haven't added so far is red. I've put in purple and there is a lot of green with all sorts of browns.
And then the man comes forth!
See him again down below where the sky has emerged? There is a green circle next to him. A circle of confusion? A circle of entry? Uncertainty? I stamped other circles using the top to a big plastic bottle. Circles are also easy to swirl onto the canvas from the bottle. The "o's" are one of my favorite forms.
And now to get real earthy, I added browns of all hues and they suddenly began forming a tree trunk. And then the greens wanted to be added in all sort of leaf colors. Well, tree trunk, leaves ... soon there was a tree. But it was just leaves. I thought I might ruin it, but I decided to give it some form with branches. I just "drew" again with the bottle of paint and then a bamboo calligraphy pen. I'll let it dry and then paint over it again, but the thickness of the paint should give it a bit of a skeleton.
Like I said, it's been fun and who knows what will turn up next in this picture. It's gone further than I ever thought it would and like a story, it seems to have a mind of its own - femminismo

Permission to Play.

BARB from Michigan (thank you, friend) gave me permission to play today. I haven't finished my playing, but here are the first, second and third steps I've taken in my latest project - painting on the glass in an old window.
Never, ever done this before so I found a number of things happening I hadn't planned on.
1. I didn't think the paint (acrylics) would dry so quickly. Wrong.
2. What I thought would be the front and back got reversed as the paint dried. Or did it? Maybe I will have a second chance on the other side of the glass when I've finished. Maybe I can have two - click - two ladies in one.
3. Here is the lady as she is resting now in the sunroom, waiting for me to find time tomorrow to paint some more.
Who knows how her looks will change? Today was another one of my days for going around in circles denying myself the opportunity to play. Thanks again, Barb - femminismo
p.s. What color eyes will this lady have????