Neilson Park – BLACK & WHITE Exhibition

June 13, 2014 by Kate

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

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I’m glad you are back to see what new is going on here.

I have entered into the Black & White Art exhibition which is hosted by Neilson Park.

As the title suggest the art work has to be black & white only. this is first exhibition out of 3 prepared for this summer and hopefully I will participate in all of them.

I have decided to compose something different than I used to.

On this painting (reading from the top) you can see an average, cloudy sky, well blend with realistic shapes. This is representing the ever changing part of our lives but at the same time is a very clear aspiration of Heaven.

On the left side we can see irregular lines, ugly, overlapping, some of them flat, some with texture – this is where we live and how unimportant it is, unclear and messy. Also it represents the passing of time and how little of it we actually have.

On the right side you can see the perfected shape of a place of worship. it is ideally white and clean, and formed, and stable against the rest of the painting. It is like an anchor of our life and stepping in it will let us see this cloudy sky.

On the bottom of the painting towards the building you can see the shapes of people. since we have only black and white colors to use I have used different shades of grey to illustrate the different characters of people. Some shapes are dark or black – thses are bad people among us who are hypocrites and the are still blending in and going to pray. Then you can notice shapes of people in the crowd with printed words on them. Words represent all the values I’m identifying my religion with and which I’m trying to communicate to the world.

The painting is full of meaning and I’m planning to show it at the Muslim Fest 2014 which is coming up in the first weekend of August.

Let me know what you think about it.

Take Care! 🙂

Holidays in Cuba

May 4, 2014 by Kate

Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Dear reader!

Our holidays in Cuba last week were fantastic. Beautiful weather, spacious swimming pools and tasty food.

Cubans are very warm and nice people with “colorful” souls and full of friendliness.

We loved the contact with nature and culture.

My favourite purchase was a painting pad with paper made of banana tree leaves mixed with regular paper for white colour. The paper is much thicker and can easily be used for acrylic or oil paints, instead of canvas. Most of the local art is painted on this type of paper and the effect is really good – I would say unique.

Most of the items which are sold in the small gift stalls are handmade. The locals specialize in wood and leather products. Everything is very cheap from our perspective and I do regret we didn’t buy more for our friends and family.

The best experience of all was swimming with dolphins! Amazing! Such sensitive and soft animals. We had a lot of fun!

Holidays in Cuba was a great idea. We will go back there one day.

Fine art method for beginners

November 16, 2013 by Kate

Rating: +4 (from 4 votes)

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Are you wondering how we can make some fine art piece which you can proudly hang in your house even when you are not an artist? I’m going to show you the method for every time successful painting a story!

Get your suppliers ready and we will have some fun this weekend!This is the patter I’m going to use.

and this is place where I’m going to hang it 🙂so it can look beautiful with this! 🙂

I have finally managed to find some quality time to finish the first of two paintings for my bathroom wall but let’s start from the beginning.

The first step was to prepare some materials. We need tracing paper, pencil, canvas, oil paints and brushes, a damp cloth, thinner, and the most important – the design which you would like to paint.

The first step is very easy. We need to place a single sheet of tracing paper on the design – you can clip them together to prevent moving. If you are working on the bigger canvas you would have to stick individual sheets in to make a bigger one or look for a suitable size in the arts and crafts stores.

Trace the object.

I painted the background of my canvas a week earlier to have them nice and dry. Depending on the house temperature and thickness of the paint one week may not be enough, so if you are not in a hurry please allow a few more days. If the paint of background is still wet and then you put another layer on top, the painting may start to crack due to the uneven drying speed.

Once all was ready I painted over the tracing papers using a dark color in the dark spots and a light color in the light ones. You can always lift the trace paper to see how the colors are changing close to the borders of the design. Try to keep dark and light spots as similar as possible to your design.

Then we need to place the tracing paper with the paint on it face down on the canvas. Be careful, do it straight. It didn’t matter so much for my project but if you pick a different theme it may become very important.

I used damp cloth to press gently over the whole area on the tracing paper to leave good marks on the canvas. The tracing paper will not be wet on the underside so you don’t have to be worried about a mess.

Then we need to slowly lift or rather pull off the tracing paper from the canvas and our painting is almost ready!

Keep your design close with you while working on the canvas. Keep checking how the colors are changing and what shapes they take, where are shadows needed? I didn’t do many changes after making the print. I increased the amount of paint in each area and blended a bit between light and dark colors so they look more natural.

I think this is the easiest technique known and will bring you successful results every time. Now allow the painting to dry for another week or so. You can hang it already if you want 🙂 Since I painted round all the edges very carefully I will not need a frame for it.

If you would like to use acrylic paints you would have to hurry as they dry very fast ( completely dry in 30 minutes). That is why I recommend oils, you can take your time and work on everything as detailed as you want.

Now by bathroom is almost done!