Folk Art Bird House

My dear friend Dede designed a series of bird houses

and her very handy and skilled husband made them for her. 

She gave me two of them as a gift. 

The one featured here was unfinished.

It was a "blank canvas" for me to play with. 

I began by taking off the hardware and taping off the roof.

I decided to go with a light warm neutral base

(because it's what I had the most of).

My design theme prior to starting was rustic

Mexican folk art. 

I was inspired by my recent trips to 

Tucson and Albuquerque. 

I may work a little more on the back. I was in a 

hurry to finish up. Actually, I wanted my kitchen

table back after 4 days of having it covered with

newspaper and paint supplies. 

Happy Holiday and Happy Creating!

My Folk Art Experiment

This is one of my latest creations. It's a mixed media piece on wood. The girl was drawn on heavyweight watercolor paper with colored pencils, cut out and then decoupaged to the background I prepared.

This project was stepping out of the box for me. It's not my typical style. I think she turned out alright. I'm not pleased with the amount of negative space, or should I say the lack of negative space. I also think it lacks my own unique style. I've seen a lot of this type of work around. It was also tough for me to purposely draw a distorted figure. It should've been easier because there are no rules to follow, but in a way it was harder. I need to practice more. I hope this doesn't sound like too critical of a critique, but that's how I learn and improve. It ends up encouraging, not discouraging me.

On the positive side, I liked working with colored pencils. I haven't done much of that in the past and would like to do more. The blending nature they lend was kind of fun. I love incorporating Scripture in my work and found a place for it here. I finished the entire piece with a glittery modge podge. It gave it a pretty, shimmery effect.

I ended up giving her as a gift to an childhood friend that had requested an art piece of mine. My friend was very pleased, and that's what matters most.

I'm currently finishing up another mixed media piece that contains one of my favorite old Irish blessings. I'll post a picture of that soon.

Blessings,
Terri