New found love: Stanley Spencer

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours making my way round Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. I saw a tonne of beautiful paintings (will share some of these later) and by far the stand out peice for me was a gigantic painting by Stanley Spencer. It was hhhuuuggge and so detailed. I loved the people curiously emerging from their graves and the different stylized tombs he had created. There was a wonder to the painting and its story is still drawing  me in, 24 hours later...

Paint over collage

From one of my Life Book 2014 lessons, this soft and pastelly angel started her life as a model from a magazine! I explored how to create a character using collage as a starter and painting over the top. This was great fun! And I wasn't worried about it being realistic because already there was quite a realistic base to work from. I got frustrated with this one because I hadn't realised the layer of acrylics would make my first collage layer disappear, but I loved the end result. I created this piece on Sunday when it was really sunny, so it happened quite quickly for me as I didn't have to wait for the layers to dry for long - I just popped the page out in the sun for 5 minutes! The colours, for me, I love so much. I got crazy scared when I added some black stamping, but a brayered layer of white gesso saved it and in hindsight, I like the grungy look it has given it. Also, the pencil doodles on top - not normally something I would go for but I really enjoyed adding these little touches. I will definitely be trying this technique again, maybe using watercolours instead of acrylics to still keep the collage paper layer on show. Complimenting this piece are also some poetic lines, and I really didn't think I would like writing poetry but hey! I loved it! The theme was positive connections in life, my 3 poetics lines are;

Lovingly curled in a magical quirk

Sun beams softly cherish you

Explore your calm inside the storm

The process: