Good morning! I'm loving my coffee this morning and am looking forward to my day. I have the privilege of hanging with my babies and it has been a week since I saw them last (last week I was a bit under the weather if you recall). So I am up bright and early and feeling good.
I'm so excited about painting again and I love how my first ever saw blade turned out. These blades were given to me and have been lying around my studio for several years. I'm determined to may 2021 a year FULL of art and that means using the resources around me rather than purchasing more canvases. I really like how it turned out and so I wanted to share it with you.
A few months ago I decided I was going to paint these two old saw blades and so I got the idea to have my husband weld some old horseshoes on them that we had lying around. It really helps with handling them and I think it will make a perfect way to hang the finished art on the wall.
First thing we did was to clean them up really well. My husband used the pressure washer on them to get rid of all the dirt or oils on the surface. Once they had dried I applied 2 coats of Miniwax Indoor/Outdoor Helmsman Spar Urethane- Clear Satin to both sides. Here is the link for that product on Amazon. For the cowbell we use a different process to prepare them and I might blog about that whole process another day. Here is the link on Amazon: Helmsman Spar Urethane
I had to fashion a safe way to hold these blades to my easel. I have a real fear of them falling off and landing on my foot (I don't own any steel toed boots) so I have them hanging on the screws and then I loop the bunge cord over them to hold them in place when I'm not painting on them. In this photo you are seeing the blades with the first coat of acrylic paint applied. I just made them a very dark color because I've decided that I am going to paint a goat on the one and there will be a dark barn in the background. The blades are naturally very dark so this just even it all out and gave me a nice solid colored surface to begin with.
Now I didn't take pictures as I started but I used a white pastel pencil to light sketch in my basic composition. It doesn't have to be prefect because I dial it all in as I'm painting. That is the beauty of painting in acrylics and oils. You can fix anything.
It takes a number of layers to get your colors vibrant when painting on metal but I' couldn't be happier with the final piece. This cute little goat is named Rosemary and she is one of the goats raised by Katie at Galloping Gertie's Goatery. Katie takes the best pictures of her goats and I'm so grateful that she gives me permission to use them as reference photos in my work. If I paint or draw a goat they are more than likely from Galloping Gerties.
This piece is looking for a new forever home but first I have photograph it with the good camera, spray a fixative coat on it and then give it a couple coats of a clear glossy varnish to seal up it up and help prevent fading or scratching. When all that is done I will be adding this piece to my Etsy Shop if I haven't sold it before that. Just send me a message if you would like to own this piece.
Now to finish the 2nd saw blade and that cowbell this week. We also collected a number of old cans while camping over Thanksgiving. It will be fun to see what I can paint on these.
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