UFO’s are the dreaded “Un-Finished Objects” which every decorative painter tries to avoid but sometimes doesn’t succeed! These are the projects which get put off from one day to another until they are hidden from plain sight and forgotten. I discovered one project which I did not finish from 2006, one from 2007 and one from 2009. Another was a class project I taught the week before and the last one was the most recent class project..I was really disgusted and resolved to finished ALL of them before starting any new project! I painted everyday until they were all complete.

Thankfully I can go back to a normal painting life now..

UFO’s happen many ways. Many people have “good” reasons, like having to travel on an emergency (me!), running out of paint and no time off from classes to go out and get fresh supplies (me!), waiting for inspiration on how to complete a design (me!) etc etc  Most of the time its just pure procrastination. Is there ever another reason? LOL.

Anyway, UFO’s are not good at all. For one thing, depending on how long you’ve left your project lying around, a layer of dust and grime have collected on your painting, making it not the most friendly surface to paint on. You will find that paint tends to run off the surface when you try to paint it and it gets quite frustrating. What to do? Once I had to gently clean the surface with a soft sponge wetted with some water and a touch of hand soap. Then I dried the surface thoroughly with a hairdryer before I started painting on it.

If you’re painting from instructions, you will also probably be hunting high and low for those instructions. Maybe its instructions I gave you or maybe its instructions in one of your books or magazines. Do you even remember in which book or magazine it was??? Sometimes you may have the instructions at hand but it has been so long since you painted the project that the instructions don’t seem to make any sense. Another frustrating thing about UFO’s is that your wet palette has completely dried up or has been cleaned many times over and you no longer have the colours you used to paint that particular project. Its even worse if any of the colours you were using were mixes. Far worse if you don’t have the paints and the paints in your palette were the ones provided by your teacher at class!

Once I had a UFO which was a box with a cover and as usual I had removed the screws when I basecoated the box. Although I was careful enough to put all the screws in a little plastic container, God forbid, I had misplaced it! Thankfully, I found it in the end….but it was quite unnerving when I could not remember where I put it.

Those are just some of the problems with UFO’s. Maybe you have an experience to share?

So to end on a high note, here are a few good reasons to finish every single decorative painting project in good time and not procrastinate:

• Your palette is still fresh with all the colours you used to paint the project
• If you started painting the project in a class, techniques taught are still fresh in your head and you can still make sense of the instructions provided to you
• Your surface is still fresh for painting – no dust or grime to deal with

Most importantly, remember the high that you feel when you look at your completed project…that’s the best reason to finish your painting project.

I always have several basecoated rectangular and round MDF pieces (which will make great placemats, by the way!) lying around. I use a couple of them as practise boards – whatever I was learning, I would practise painting them on these boards. When I run out of space, I would basecoat them again and start over.

I keep the other pieces as “emergency” project surfaces – you know when you have that itch to paint something and your creative juices are flowing and you have no time to basecoat one..

Sometimes the practise pieces actually turn out quite nice! Like this one when I was learning some new leaves. I thought why not, just freehand them on a round basecoated placemat I had lying around.

I liked it so much I never basecoated over it again. I never thought that leaves on their own could make such a nice subject for a decorative painting project….

Things are looking good at the Studio – I have to catch up on some unfinished classes but looking forward to designing some new projects for the rest of the year.

The class calendar is still relevant and the last date for classes before a short summer break is May 27th.

See you at the Studio soon!

I love roses. And I had wanted to learn to paint roses from the very first  decorative painting class I joined. I think I made my teacher laugh!

When I started teaching, I only taught roses as a second class…but for a couple of enthusiastic students, I broke the rules and taught them roses as their first project!

There are so many roses to learn. There are stroke roses. Folk art roses. Free hand roses. Patterned roses. Realistic roses. There are so many ways to paint them. Zhostovo roses. Bavarian multi-loaded roses. Hindeloopen roses. Rosemaled roses.

And of course – what everyone must remember – everyone’s roses are different. No matter how and what is taught, eventually your roses will be YOUR roses. It becomes your trademark. The more you paint it, the more you will develop YOUR rose.

Have a great Valentine’s Day.

All classes are  from 10am to 1pm on each day.

Please bookmark this page as I will keep updating with events like workshops, clinics and courses.

If you don’t know what to paint take a look at some of the projects available on the studio website.

It all started one day when I realised that I didn’t have time to basecoat an MDF item to paint a new project in class with my students. I thought of painting on paper but I discovered canvas boards among my hoard of “paintable” items and that became the perfect surface!

Since then, I didn’t have any qualms about taking any decorative painting design and painting it on a canvas board or stretched canvas.

For example, I had painted this MDF bin with a roses design and much later painted the same thing on a rectangular canvas board.

I also encourage my students to have a go and some of them actually like it. Its good to paint on traditional surfaces like the canvas, for a change! LOL

Basecoating your canvas for decorative painting is a little different because the canvas surface is not smooth like the MDF or wood surfaces we’re used to. So you will find it quite a challenge to basecoat it with a brush and thick paint straight from the bottle or tube.

But there is an easy way – I use a small roller sponge and extra pressure. Basecoat once, dry with a hairdryer and then basecoat again and voila…its ready to take your decorative painting.

You’ll also finish in half the time because no sanding is required….that should make a lot of painters happy!

Painting your design is not much different once you get the hang of moving your brush around on the basecoated canvas surface. You will always feel the texture of the canvas but all the decorative painting techniques you’re used to will work on the canvas.

No worries. You just have to try it to find out.

So why not have a go?

Being first-time painters, they were quite naturally nervous at first but the good thing about painting in a group is that you get to motivate each other and learn from each other.

Basecoating is always taught at your first class – I know it looks easy but trust me, its easy to forget that its one of the most important steps of decorative painting.

To get a good end result, we have to start right. These ladies soon learnt the trick to get their plaques perfectly smooth, ready for painting. Patience, patience, patience. Absolutely no shortcuts or your project will not look like an heirloom!

Confidence is important in decorative painting and at the first class its always necessary to develop confidence by practising brush loading and brush control.

Once a reasonable level of confidence is attained, we start painting on the project. Of course, its quite natural to be a bit nervous. Its your first time, right? But when you see that first daisy take shape, believe me, its MAGIC….you are painting!

You might find it hard to believe, but everyone gets to finish their project on Day 2 of a Taster Class…these ladies thoroughly enjoyed it and are so proud of their work.

Big smile for the camera…..and CLICK!

A “taster” class is exactly that – a class to get a taste of decorative painting! In two sessions I will teach everything you need to know to finish this project – starting with basecoating the woodpiece and preparing it to be painted, applying the pattern, a bit about brushes, brush loading, a bit about colours, basic round brush strokes and varnishing.

At the end of two days, of course, everyone takes home their project and try to convince their husbands and their kids that they ACTUALLY painted it! Yes, that’s always the best part…that’s why I always take photos of students painting – that’s the proof they painted it!!! LOL

If you live in Kuwait and would like to attend this or any other taster class, please add a comment and we’ll take it from there! See you soon..

Class dates are:

Tuesday and Wednesday, January 26th and 27th, 2010 – 10am to 1pm
(one place available)

Tuesday and Wednesday, February 2nd and 3rd, 2010 – 10am to 1pm
(3 places available)

Tuesday and Wednesday, February 9th and 10th, 2010 – 10am to 1pm
(4 places available)

Tuesday and Wednesday, February 16th and 17th, 2010 – 10am to 1pm
(4 places available)

The cupboards I “re-claimed” are L-shaped and fitted just nicely into the corner where I used to have my desk. I always thought the units would be too large for my studio but apparently its not!

Hubby had this great idea of positioning the table diagonally and it actually looks very nice there. Lets hope its also better feng shui? Not that I know too much about feng shui..

Of course I had to remove some odd pieces of furniture that were here and after re-arranging my projects in their new home, I have to say the studio looks more alive!

Here’s to great painting days in the “new” studio!

One of the most popular techniques decorative painters use to give an item an aged look is crackling.

I crackled this wooden palette then painted a roses design over it. You can also use a crackling effect on parts of an item only e.g. the sides of a box or the edges of a plate. You can even crackle the whole project without painting any design if that’s what you want.

The basic steps for crackling are :

1. Basecoat the surface as you would normally do for a painting project. Let it dry.
2. Apply an even coat of crackle medium with a large flat brush and let it dry until “tacky” – see what your medium instructions say. It could be 20 to 60 minutes.
3. Apply the contrasting topcoat of paint – as this paint dries, your cracks will develop and show the basecoat colour.
4. Leave to dry for 1 – 2 weeks before sanding and varnishing or painting over it.

Depending on how much top coat paint you use and which way or how you apply the paint, you can achieve different looks:

• Apply a thin layer of paint over the crackle medium – and the result is fine cracks.
• Apply a thick layer of paint – you get large, bold cracks.
• If you brush the top coat in one single direction, you will get cracks going horizontally or vertically in that direction.
• If you brush the top coat using a “slip slap” or criss-cross direction, you will get cracks going in various directions.

If you have never crackled before, you might find it a bit daunting at first because you’ll probably have read that with crackling, sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. No matter what you do. Its true that there are so many different variables that affect the outcome of crackling from the paint you use, to the crackling medium, even the humidity around you!

The best thing to do is “play” – practise crackling on different surfaces, using difference mediums, in different environments and develop your experience.

You will find useful tips for crackling here in the Artezan website.