I recently completed the online Creative Reset Course by Louise Fletcher. Assignment four encouraged us to explore mark making and having fun with paint using unusual tools.
As I quite often use various items to make marks I looked for new things around the kitchen and items from my box that I haven’t yet used. We had to make two sets of 6 pictures by taping off one large sheet, painting and ignoring the tape and then cutting it up at the end.
I worked for about 1.5 hours on the first page and stopped because I was tired. I worked more slowly than usual, not done my usual large smears of paint and still had white spaces. I hadn’t managed to mix many colours from my 3+B&W.
I decided which things I liked using and which I don’t, some will be good with gel plate but not directly onto paper. I even got around to using a piece of seaweed collected last year. It was a disappointing result. So that went in the bin.
Below are the items I decided to re-use on the second sheet. In the end I didn’t use the nail brush as I hadn’t cleaned it and so the bristles were too stiff. And I forgot to use the long thin thing, and I don’t think I used the letter stencil.
The second sheet:
Again, there is a lot of white space. I worked even more slowly and gave more thought to my choices. I enjoyed the exercise and below is my favourite of them all:
On the top left corner is a piece of paper I used to press down on the stencil after I had used it and wanted to get rid of any paint that might be left. I love the mark it has made and as the paint on the paper was from the mark making of the first page it seemed apt to stick it on.
A very useful exercise. Thank you Louise Fletcher – Art.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 