Homage To Frida

Hello, Friends!

Frida Kahlo is a neverending source of inspiration for so many of us. You will absolutely love what Gayle created for us today + she's revealing many of her art tricks in a step by step tutorial! An exceptional art piece...

Hello lovely Finnabair friends.

This month I’ve created a little shrine dedicated to Frida Kahlo.

My obsession with faces does not want to leave me and there is none more well known, interesting and beautiful than that of Frida Kahlo - an artist and icon of female strength and creativity.

I have used a “blank” silicone doll's head and have attempted to paint it in a "Frida style" - challenging but fun (such tiny features and no rubbing out).

The other thing that I have been inspired by on “my Frida journey”, is a beautiful, rustic wall of porcelain tiles I saw in a Mexican restaurant, so I made some tiny chipboard tiles to adorn the sides of my “shrine”.

Last but not least, I knew that Mica Powders were going to be perfect for painting my metal, resin and fabric embellishments for this project with their amazing richness and depth of colour.

I started with a blank silicone doll's head, same as the green one only it was purple… kind of scary.

1) I gave it 3 coats of Heavy White Gesso before I could paint in the features. I did this with a combination of acrylic paint, coloured pencil and white pen.

2) The hair is made from fine cotton gauze that I painted black and attached using Soft Matte Gel. Added a fabric head band and some resin flowers that were attached with 3D Matte Gel. I touched up these pink flowers with pink and gold Mica Powder.

I worked on a cradled wooden panel that was given a coat of  3) White Gesso then 4) a collaged layer of patterned tissue paper, stuck down using Soft Matte Gel.

When that was dry I added some deeper colour with Ranger Distress Stain in Crushed Olive and Forest Moss.

With all the metal embellishments I coloured them in the usual way using Mica Powder mixed with Soft Matte Gel.

I have never painted on fabric before with Mica Powder but it works a treat.

5) I had some white lace I wanted to use, so painted it first with a coat of Heavy Black Gesso, then in the usual way mixed Gold Mica Powder with Soft Matte Gel and painted it onto the black lace.

I wanted to create tiny tiles like these that I saw in a Mexican restaurant:

6) So I made some out of chipboard by collaging tissue paper onto it, cutting it up into 1cm. squares, giving them a coat of glossy accents, glueing them into place with 3D Matte Gel and “grouting” in between with Modeling Paste.

One side was covered with tiles while the other side was coated with Art Extravagance White Crackle Texture Paste 7) and then coloured with Ranger Distress Stains 8) the colour running into the cracks creating the look of an old plaster wall.

Metal, resin and cotton lace painted with Mica Powder mixed with Soft Matte Gel. Mica Powders in Gold, Teal and Black Cherry.

Also added some Glass Glitter in Pitch Black and Micro Beads in Black and Copper. Also a little extra gold by way of Mica Flakes. You can find all the Ingredients listed below.

Thank you for looking today. I hope you may be inspired to try using your art mediums on surfaces other than paper, card or canvas.

Gayle

Materials used: