Sette Design: painting

Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Positivity

I'm wishing you all a happy weekend.

Un bacio,
Natalie

This is a really fun post because there are so many phases of this little table project that I feel are nice just left where they are. Knowing when to stop is key for whatever you are doing. When I was in Art School in NYC I was the one others came to, for me to critique their artwork and to tell them when to stop working.

My plan here and remember plans make us happy, was to do some silver leaf and then distress it. Leaf comes in silver, gold and copper.

I started by painting this table gray with acrylic paint. I already liked it simple as it is here, 2 coats, I let it dry many hours.

Then I painted on the silver leaf glue (water-based mission) you can get it at the art store along with the leaf packets, here in Europe they cost about 5 euros for 20 sheets. So it is not as expensive as everyone thinks. The glue costs about double that, but can last for years and many projects. With the glue you must let it dry about 20-30 minutes. It should be tacky to the touch. You want to get the whole surface covered. I work fast, but if you feel nervous I suggest you just do a section at a time.

I put the leaf on with an old make-up brush. It must be a very light soft brush or it will break the leaf of silver. I also suggest you do it outside in a non-windy place because the silver leaf gets all over and this drives me crazy. It is impossible to clean up because it flies away and if there is a little bit of glue on it can stick to your floors.

press on with soft brush

piece them together

If the gray paint surface coming threw bugs you, just add more leaf on top, either right away or with more glue and time.

I think it looks gorgeous without the distressing, modern and clean.

silver leaf modern look

Then I mixed raw-umber oil paint with a tiny bit of flax oil (olio di lino). But you can also dilute it with turpentine, just a tiny bit either way. I used a dry brush and first brushed off the oil paint on a piece of wood.

don't get too much on the brush

Then I brush it on the silver leaf and wipe it off (soft cotton cloth) where it is too much. The more you work the surface the less brilliant the leaf will be. I brushed over the legs of the table too.

antiquing - dry brush in oil paint

In theory I should have waited a few days for the oil color to dry. I put on a coat of clear finish, water-based polyurethane soon after, before the oil paint had dried. I’m not too good about having patience and I like a little risk, if it was a big piece or for a client I wouldn’t have risked it.

So I styled the photo of this table bold and intellectual and feminine and romantic. Which way do you like it best?

This book is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
it is supposed to be great

silver leaf table

Sweet regards,

Natalie

I'm linking with these lovely parties:

Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Bicycle of Flowers

bicycle of flowers

I was shocked to find this little scene at the end of my block. Isn't it gorgeous when life is surprising. On the tags of the bike is a poem that can be ripped off, the sign reads. We free the beauty.

we free the beauty

"Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it-don't cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist- but don't think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you."

Ernest Hemingway, writer

A less known book of Ernest that I highly recommend is A Moveable Feast, it is not fiction but more of a journal written when he was just starting out writing.

On the first page below the title is written.

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

-Ernest Hemingway to a friend, 1950

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch
Mod Vintage Life
A Stroll Thru Life

Painting A Shutter

outside my balcony is a river the flows to Rome

I wanted to change the space by my balcony now that it is spring. It has been a long rainy winter here in Umbria and the humidity was too much in the space. I had to take everything away from the wall. I live in a Gothic Palazzo with two feet thick stone walls, many of which are facing north and get little direct sun. Plus there was no sun!

I had a lot of fun these days, because I cut loose and painted a woman in vines on this inner shutter. Recently I am really caught up in vines. Anyone out there feel like they are interlaced in vines? It isn’t a good feeling, but I will spare you the difficulties of my life. I wanted to make my woman in vines seem like she was hidden behind an old Venetian stucco wall.

here' my girl in vines

Here is the space before and also the shutter before.

the space before

the inner shutter before

Now I can use the space, have a cup of tea and write in my diary, breath in the smell of the spring flowers and rest assured that I will work my way out of the vines and into the garden of my future.