The Whole Canvas

So, here's the canvas! Montana daughter received it and thankfully, loves it. Turns out they just installed an architectural element above their bed, and my canvas has a beautiful new home there.

It was fun making this and a learning experience as well. I'm going to try some smaller pieces - this one is 16x20 and all that space can be daunting. I discovered my new favorite stamping tool - a rolled up piece of foam grip shelf liner. Think you can see some of the random stamping I did with it. I didn't ink the liner, just stamped it on dry to lift-off some background paint.

I love the moment when some treasure that's been carefully saved finds just the right spot in a piece. I picked up the rusty, smooshed spring ages ago in a parking lot and it works here. The key-hole piece was rescued from a bucket of rusty bits at the Brimfield Fair. (Go there is you ever get the chance- there are acres of lovelies to buy and possibilities in everything). This serendipitous use of stuff just reinforces the urge to save everything. I often waffle over pieces of paper, bits of fibers or whatever that I think should just go to the recycling, but that just might be useful in some project. Restraint is not one of my strengths! I figure that's why all art supply stores have large sections devoted to storage containers.