Hi and Welcome!
I recently won a guest design spot for April at http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ where this was the inspiration.
The design brief asked for these colours to be used.
This is the artwork of Australian Indigenous Artist, Trevor Nickolls and his piece 'Warmun Mandala'.
With these vibrant colours, I immediately thought 'Aussie outback'..... but, no outback pictures. Then I found the perfect sunset photos, combined with an outback inspired theme and came up with this... a reverse canvas.
Gesso was painted on the canvas and frame prior to painting. For the background I've used strips of mulberry paper, cardstock and a piece made on a gelli pad. The gelli pad printing is just how it appeared after a second pressing. I loved the way this turned out, with the suggestion of grasses and rocks in the foreground. The frame was also painted with acrylics in the same tones with the addition of Opals embossing enamels and stamping with archival ink and 3D Stamp paint (chocolate and copper).
The photos of sunsets taken from my home, were matted on a stamped background (Darkroom Door Background Stamp 'Marbling'). The gum nuts are real, and were given a light touch of 3D Texture Paint.
The tree was drawn and cut from cardboard from a cereal box, embossed with a Craft Concepts 'Secret Garden' folder and inked with Black Soot and Bundled Sage Distress Inks. The background was stamped using the same mediums as the frame.
Fibrous wool has been added to give a grassy effect. The chipboard grass segment on the frame was finished with opals.
The log in the foreground was made from a dried lotus leaf. Flowers and leaves were also made from a gelli pad experiment using acrylics, Lumiere Metallics and spritzes of glimmer mist. One section of the cardstock was stamped (Darkroom Door Carved Flowers) and cut out. The other section was cut using T.H. Tattered Garland die. Brown flowers were die cut from glassine paper, spritzed with glimmer mist, scrunched and then heat dried. Inca gold, brads and seed beads completed the flowers. I really enjoyed this challenge and had great fun designing for it. I hope you find it inspirational.
I must thank the ARTastic team for giving me the opportunity to show my work. Please make sure you pop over to the ARTastic blog to see what the fabulous design team has come up with and to also see the entries that have been submitted. You still have the time to enter if you feel inspired to do so.
Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments. They are truly appreciated.
Cheers, Di
