Linda Edkins Wyatt: April 2020

Welcome to the StencilGirl Monochromatic Rainbow Bloghop! My chosen color for the hop was green...the color of the grass, the color of the sea (sometimes), the color of emeralds and jade and some turquoise stones. I love all shades from lime green to deep teal. But wait...we were limited to one basic color plus black and white. No neighboring colors, no smidgens of accent colors. I couldn't mix lime with aqua. Forest green with sea green. I got a little nervous at that point.

I started by choosing a green and mixing up some color tabs. Next, I tested a bunch of stencils on the geli plate and pulled off a gazillion prints. Nothing sparked my imagination. All my creations looked like camouflage, which was very disappointing for a pacifist. Next, I decided to flip my thoughts and embrace camo...after all, the forest is full of beautiful green plants, right? I decided to go leafy and natural. No luck.

So, I thought a little bit outside the box I had put myself in. I decided to go with the darkest green and the lightest green, and treat my artwork as though it were a black and white piece.

I painted a piece of chipboard a very dark green.

After I mixed up a verrrrry dark green, I mixed up a verrrrry pale green.

I painted a big piece of chipboard with the darkest green, and a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with the lightest shade. Next, I pulled out some of my go-to stencils: Tapestry (L714) by Kristie Taylor, Lacy Lotus by Jessica Sporn (L423) and Laugh Face (S651) by Pam Carricker.

You can see my sponging process in the photos above.

After the dark green paint had dried, I centered the Tapestry stencil and carefully sponged the light green paint on with a cosmetic wedge.

I loved the Tapestry stencil all by itself, but like my college art professor stressed: "more is more" so I added more stenciling at the edges.

When the piece was completely dry, I added the Lacy lotus along all 4 edges. I loved it; I felt connected with my inner William Morris and my textile designer roots. The two stencils complimented each other beautifully.

The Tapestry stencil looked fantastic with the Lacy Lotus edging it.

The background looked gorgeous, but I knew that I needed something punchy for the center. I carefully stenciled the Laugh Face using dark green on top of the pale green painted paper.

The Laugh Face stencil, taped to the light green background.

I was looking at the little number 3 on the corner of the Laugh Face, which made me think of numbers, and about how much measuring there has been in my life--in school, in cooking, in sewing and in art, so I was inspired to use a stamp of a Dritz measuring tape as an accent. I painted the deep green on the stamp and applied it at the top and bottom of the Laugh Face.

For an accent, I was limited. My heart wanted to use embossing powder, but none of mine were a good match with my color palette they were slightly off-cast or had bits of metallic in them.

I checked the light green brad against some of my green gelli prints to make sure it matched.

However, I did have some small pale green brads that matched, so I poked holes with my awl and added them at the sides of the piece.

I named my green creation "Measuring Up" to reflect not only all the measuring I do in my artwork, but to remind me to stop worrying about whether I measure up to everyone else as an artist, as a mother, as a wife, and as a woman in today's world.