Cecilia Swatton: Taking Stencil and Mask Designs from Nature

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Taking Stencil and Mask Designs from Nature

It's a huge -- some might say impossible -- challenge to create artwork as beautiful as nature itself, even art inspired by nature.

My 9" x 12" mask Looking Up Through Trees--

-- took its original inspiration from nature, but in my hands, it quickly evolved into a tool for abstract art-making. The latest example is the black-and-white painting below:

For other nature-themed projects, I've reached back into my stash of earlier stencils and masks. Maybe some of them will spark ideas for new artworks by others ....

You can click on the image above to enlarge it and better see details. Both pieces are Gelli Plate prints. Before making that trip to the Gelli Plate, each paper was removed from an old encyclopedia page; the left one was tinted with thinned yellow-green acrylic paint and the right was tinted with a layer of translucent zinc white acrylic paint.

The paper on the left was printed with my 9" x 12" stencil Ivy Frame 9 --

-- and, for the one on the right, I used Ivy 9 Stencil, also 9" x 12" --

All four of my ivy-themed stencils were based on the English Ivy that we bought years ago at Longwood Gardens (Kennet Square, PA) and that has been thriving in areas of our yard ever since.

Middle left above: two more papers printed with Ivy 9 Stencil and Ivy Frame 9. Far upper right: a green print on yellow and tan canvas background, made with Ivy 9 Stencil. Top left and central bottom: two papers embossed using 6" x 6" Ginkgo stencil.

Below: a close-up of the Ivy 9 Stencil print at far middle right:

Below: 6" x 6" stencil Ginkgo--

The greet6ing card cover below is a collage that stars a print on Chinese Joss paper made with the Artist Trading Card-sized mask Fern Fronds Silhouette, which is included in my 9-stencil 9" x 12" ATC Mixup Swatton # 2 ....