Oxygen: A Contradiction

Hello on Monday Dear Friends!
Gayle - a true Artist - will move your hearts and souls today...
Get ready for a mixed media feast of textures, tones and magical patina and rust effects. All this and more - this collage is also beautiful food for thought and surely an inspiration to us all...

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Hello again lovely Finnabair friends. I tend to “overthink” and this often leads me, as I’m sure it does many of you, to ideas that can be expressed through creativity - writing, art journaling, painting, song writing, poetry etc.

My creation this month comes from the idea of oxygen - how it sustains life but also destroys it. How the air that we breathe, so vital for life, can be at the same time so destructive. How it corrodes metal, dries and destroys skin cells, how, over time, things that were once soft and delicate become brittle and sharp.

No.1 As always, the surface is gessoed. The surface in this case is a square of chipboard.

All the flowers in this project, except for one, are paper so the supporting background does not need to be as rigid or strong as if the embellishments were metal.

No.2 I drew in an outline of where the face would be and then using a stencil and Art Basics Modeling Paste created a textured and patterned background.

No.3 The face is photocopied onto plain copy paper and then collaged onto the background chipboard using Soft Matte Gel.

It is then given a coat of Clear Gesso and the bottom section of the image (where the muslin cloth will be attached) is coated with Heavy White Gesso to create a whiter background.

No.4 The rusty pipe representing the mechanical action of breathing, is a plastic dripper connector used for irrigating gardens.

Given a coat of Heavy White Gesso first, it is turned into an old metal rusty pipe with Art Extravagance Rust Effect Paste and a little Patina Effect Paste.

No.5 I love flowers, especially white paper ones that can be coloured.

No.6 Using mists is a quick and easy way to colour your flowers any shade you want.

No.7 Once the flowers have dried, I have added a little shimmer with Sparks Acrylic Paint in Mermaid Sparkles and coppery highlights with Acrylic Paint in Metallique Brass Hardware.

No.8 I added some extra pattern to the face with some collaged tissue flowers (sorry, forgot to photograph this step, but you can just see them under the crackle paste).

I then coated the whole face with a thick layer of Clear Crackle Texture Paste. This step was a little risky, as sometimes texture paste can be unpredictable in how it dries and the end results.

I love the way it dried with very fine crackles where it was applied more thinly around the mouth and eyes. I left it to dry naturally overnight and did not use a heat tool; I think this gives better results.

 

No.9 I then started the “ageing process”, rusting up the pipe and the face with Rust Effect Pastes and a little of the Blue Patina Effect Paste, by just applying the pastes in layers using a small, stiff paint brush.

No.10 Finally, using acrylic paint I added colour, highlights and depth to the eyes, face and lips.

Cracked and rusty detail using amazing Finnabair Clear Crackle Texture Paste and Rust Effect Pastes.

Tiny cracks where the Clear Crackle Texture Paste has been applied more thinly; wider where the paste was thicker.

Background detail and falling, rusted petals.

Contrasts… the dull, crusty look of corrosion and decay next to the clear sparkle, shimmer and shine of life...

The very element that keeps us alive is the same one that ages us.

We cannot live without oxygen, so it’s maybe better to embrace the process of ageing and see the beauty in it.

I like the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi - a view centred on the acceptance of transience and imperfection;

the idea that beauty can be impermanent, imperfect and incomplete...

Gayle xx

Materials used: