Reinventing the Jar

As I mentioned in the last post Connie's oil painting of the jar is a favorite.  During her show she had an offer to buy it, but since it wasn't for sale...we wanted to come up with a way to share it.  At first we color copied her original thinking we would use a simple frame. But because it was an oil painting I used a different technique.


I bought a 4 x 6 wooden paint panel at my local craft store which I sanded and stained.



I cut the copy a little smaller than the panel thinking the edge gave it a nice frame.  Then I applied a thin coat of Matte Medium on the panel and adhered the jar image using a brayer.

Sometimes it's helpful to put a coat of the Matte Medium over the image for protection, but it isn't necessary. This can protect the image and give it a more hand painted feel.  (If I do, I spray a light coat of fixative so the ink doesn't run.)


Voilà!  A wonderful gift for someone special!

'Instant Art' Bottles Up Close

I thought the bottle pictures from the last post deserved a closer look.

And.....finally the page I didn't have room for.  

Maybe in another house I will have a longer wall.

Again, thank you Martha Stewart!

Instant Art

Several years ago there was an article in Martha Stewart Magazine about bottle collecting.  There were eight pages of beautiful bottles all lined up on the same surface.  I loved them!  I carefully cut out the pages with an x-acto knife, color copied them onto cardstock and put them in these simple 6 x 8 frames.  That's almost five feet of instant art in my upstairs bathroom.  There actually is an 8th page...but my space wasn't long enough.  I have done a set for three other friends.  Thanks Martha!



This is the same set of bottles, reduced on my home printer, carefully cut out in little chunks, and glued back together with spacers so it stands on it's own.  It's about four inches high.