Abstract Monoprint Painting Experiments

I hope you all had a good and blessed Thanksgiving weekend! Hubby and I spent part of the day with our niece and nephew and their families at our great-niece's home. We were blessed with a great meal, great company, who we love very much, and we were able to drive ourselves the twenty-five miles there and back and got home safely, plus we had each other for one more Thanksgiving! We all missed the loved ones who have gone on before us, but we are still very blessed indeed! Sorry, no pictures. :(

Anyway, here's what I've been playing with creatively the last few days!

If I'm going to be painting much in acrylics I use a sponge sheet and acrylic paper palette. The sponge sheet is dampened and the paper laid on top with the paint squeezed out on it, and it helps keep the acrylics from drying out so fast while I'm using them. I'm a slow  painter!

I've been painting small paper clay figures in short sessions, so I cut the sponge sheet and paper down to fit into a small plastic box with a lid, and most of the paint will stay moist for several days. When I finish with a project, I often have moist paint left on the paper. I hate to waste it, so I play with it in my Arteza mixed media sketchbook. The palette I cut to fit the box also happens to fit the sketchbook pages.

Sometimes, I apply it with a brush and/or a palette knife, and sometimes I take the palette paper, with the paint, and turn it upside down on a sheet of my sketchbook, rub the back some, kind of smushing it around, lift the paper, and viola! surprise! Such fun to see what images emerge! And when the page is rotated, there are different images to explore! I love it!

Below are some abstract monoprints (I call them) that I created this way from my last painting sessions...

This first one is the actual palette paper, from a few weeks ago, where I scraped the paint off with a palette knife and put it on mixed media paper. This is how it was left, and I saw a bird a little off center, so I hung on to it, thinking it could go in a collage/journal. I may, or may not, add some more to it later.

This one is the first monoprint from the palette paper (below) into my sketchbook. The Arteza mixed media sketchbook pages are textured like watercolor paper on one side and smooth on the other. These prints are on the textured pages. The paint was kind of thick and juicy to start with, and when I lifted paper, after rubbing the back of it pretty firmly, the first thing I saw was a black horse running toward me, with a red horse close behind and possible one between them. Also, a Pekingese resembling the one we once had appeared beside a blue bird hovering over a nest. That could also be a black calf/foal laying in the bottom corner. Except for a couple of little marks with a white gel pen, this is just the way the print came out. I love it so much!

This is the second print from the palette paper (below), a mountain landscape also with lots of texture. I only added a couple of lines with a gel pen to this one too. The rest is as it came out on the paper after the palette paper was lifted.

Ok, this is the original palette paper AFTER the two prints above, a much softer mountain landscape. I haven't added anything at all to it. I could probably have gotten a couple more "ghost prints" off it, as there was still some paint and texture on it, but I decided to keep it as is. It may wind up in a collage/journal!

I did scan it into my laptop, rotated it different directions, and cropped it into the following little pieces, which I can print off for different projects. I may add some more marks/paint to enhance parts of them, but I kind of like them as they are, so maybe not. :)

This one came off of one end of the original palette paper. It reminds me of a Chinese painting.

This one is cropped off the other end of the palette paper and also reminds me of a Chinese landscape painting. Nothing added to this one either!

I turned the scanned image upside down, cropped it some, and viola! a large bird appeared! I haven't added anything to this image either. I love it as it is! 

Another cropped portion of a vertical landscape, sort of. No touch ups here either.

The version of the upside down palette paper with the bird (above) before it was cropped. I know I should have placed this one above the cropped one, but this is the way they landed. :D I'm still loving all the texture and imagery! 

This can also be done with a gelli plate or anything with a hard smooth surface like glass, a piece of formica, etc. Only you squeeze the paint onto the surface, then lay your paper on top and rub, then pull up, to get an image. Fun stuff!

I think these would make pretty greeting cards and small prints, so I may print some off on much better paper at some point. At any rate, it's been fun and exciting playing with this and seeing the surprise results. It won't be the last time I do this!

Stay safe, well, and creative, and don't be afraid to experiment! You never know where it will take you! Thanks for visiting! 💓