Street Team Crusade no.31 – “Make it your own…” Fascinating, absorbing stuff. Reading what Michelle wrote made me think about my artwork – see I still can’t call it “art” plain and simple! It’s a psychological barrier that will eventually crumble, but I have to work at it.

As some of you know, I have been taking an online Class called “Layer Love” with Julie Prichard (Land of Lost Luggage). I got to ‘know’ Julie via the Street Team Crusades and was pretty awestruck by her painting style, her attitudes and her quirky sense of humour. I may not follow her blog or comment regularly, but I have a feeling she was one of those people I was going to have a connection with somewhere down the line…

So, I found out about Layer Love from Patty (Magpie’s Nest) and went for it. It was exciting! Then I looked through the supplies list and realised I had some serious shopping to do – and not in a good way. I have never been to college or Uni, I am not a painter, just a wannabe! Boy, did I have a lot to learn… Babysteps! Julie was incredibly helpful with the shopping – I do 99% of mine online because I live where I do, miles from anywhere really useful in an arty sense!! JP sent me emails by Blackberry when she was out and about, taught me the differences between the mediums, made sense of the technical terms and properties for me, but I just wasn’t getting it, in all honesty.

Adrienne came to my rescue and told me where to buy online in the UK. What a Godsend… I went, I shopped, I got my stuff and I started to learn how to apply paint in layers, mixed with mediums, and other paint; make drips, glazes, use Neocolours… golly what a rollercoaster ride. I was copying what Julie did on the teaching videos, using colours that I had and trying my best to “Julify” my works.

I got frustrated at first – surely, this wasn’t meant to be so hard, but I was struggling. It wasn’t very good and all the others in the Group did it so much better than me. They made beautiful paintings with wonderful colours – most of which I have never heard of! They were brave, they were adventurous, they could collage in the true sense of the word… while I couldn’t even paint. Oh dear!

Then I found I wasn’t the only one not exactly ecstatic with her results. I was not alone. There were even people who’d been painting for ages who couldn’t “get” the blending and layering – imagine! So I got over myself and got on with it! And each lesson got a bit easier to follow… I got the hang of blending a bit more. I experimented with mixing colours of paint, I got quite daring! And my confidence grew, until ……………….

Today I completed Lesson #8 – a layer painting on a wood panel and I tried something that JP mentioned before – I used my palette knife to apply a glaze. This probably sounds ridiculous to you, but for me it was a real “Eureka” moment!!!! I had stepped outside the Julification process, taken a chance and “Rosie-fied” my painting – yay! Hurray! Break out the bunting and party!!!!

So here’s my version of Lesson #8 – called “Urban Spirit”. I have made this one my own, thanks to Julie (and Michelle too!):

Here’s a close-up of the lighter area – the ghostly bit!

And the bottom – Urban Spirit – cut the words from a clothing tag and added them right at the end.

As the Created by Hand challenge theme is Open this week, it fits perfectly with that too! 🙂