Summer Solstice

Hello, Lovely Readers!
Together with Olga, we'd like to invite you to a very special creative summer celebration. :)
You will love Olga's new artwork and her step-by-step tutorial and surely feel inspired to celebrate this beautiful season with us...

The upcoming time of solstice is a celebration of the Sun – the force that is now taking control over the whole nature. In ancient times it was believed that this day marked the marriage of the Earth and heavens and was thus celebrated with dances and bonfires.

Why not celebrate the Midsummer evening with paints and brushes? The soltice itself was my inspiration while working on my canvas.

1. I started with gluing down a vintage page on the lower part of a regular canvas panel. The upper part was painted with White Gesso with an aim to create a tooth for other media to follow.

2. Using a stencil along with copper and brass colors of Art Alchemy acrylic paints, I created the background for a lunar composition. I hightlightened chosen areas (mainly the edges) with blue and turquoise paints from the Alchemy line.

3. Creating the heart of the lunar composition meant stamping a bold fortune teller pattern with black ink in the upper part of the canvas. Then I used a walnut ink when stamping with handwritten motifs from Messy stamp on the vintage paper’s borderline.

4. When it came to the solar part, I decided to use one of Art Pebbles. I glued down a depiction of the Sun together with a dried fern using 3D Gel which holds firmly all the collage pieces and dries transparent.

5. To add some interest to the composition, I fixed the moon’s silhouette with Mechanicals Stars above and dried peas below.

6. Then my desire was to obtain both lunar beams and golden sunny rays effects. The shimmering Mica Flakes with their delicate pearly structure turned out to be the best solution.

All these dimentional elements were painted with either Rust Pastes or patina like acrylic paints. Dripping a few tea stain drops helped create a more even and aged overall look.

Here are some details of my collage:

Happy - and Creative - Summer Solstice! :)
xx
Olga

Materials used: