More on the screen for Jim’s office.

Once the stencil had had chance to dry I took the fabric panels off the screen (yeay velcro.) I didn’t do any prep work on the fabric  -  poly(?) canvas. The paint will stick well enough and I don’t expect to try to wash the panels. By the time they’re dirty I’ll be bored with them and want to do something else.

To hold the fabric steady I clipped it to the thick foam core boards that I use to stretch watercolor paper. I measured for a rough placement for the image and then eyeballed the fine alignment.

I used brown paint (oil bar) and a large stencil brush. Because the stencil was paper coated with linseed oil I couldn’t use the repositionable adhesive that I use on plastic stencils. I used a little tape in each corner and then worked carefully holding the little tabs and bits down with my fingers as I painted. It’s messy and a little slow but worked quite well.

Here’s one of the panels finished and propped up for drying.

single panel

I had planned to use two images on each screen. One facing each direction. So I started with the two crows facing left. Two panels have the crows in the top half and one has the crow in the bottom half. Then I would clean the stencil and flip it for the rest.

Oil paint takes a while to dry and I needed the flat spaceback in my studio so I hung the panels back on the screen. Figuring that I’d take them down later this week and do the rest of the stenciling.

panels drying

Oh never mind — FINISHED!

And here’s my celebratory drink.

cheers

Lillet over ice and orange slices. The ice cubes are shaped like stars!

I did this last month. (in one day)

I made about 20 test runs on white butcher paper to find just the right color combination. And settled on this:

And here’s all the stuff it took to get the paint onto the wall.

The stencil is from Trimbelle River Studios. The room doesn’t have much in the way of long walls so I did a lot of fudging to make the motifs fit.
I used oil paint sticks and stenciling brushes. (Shiva: Olive Green, Yellow Ochre, (and a little Barn Red) Windsor/Newton Manganese Blue.) First time I’ve worked with paint sticks. Because they have to be smushed onto a pallette before you pick up the paint on the brush it takes longer than stenciling with acrylics but I like the way the paint has dimension on the wall and the fact that the colors are somewhat transparent.