March 5 - Gloria Meadows & Nancy Cagle - Furry Rocks & Gilded Lilies

Gloria Meadows brought a number of rocks she had painted. Most were animals; a few were flowers or scenes.  Her rocks have sold well in various places - In fact, she sold one at the meeting!  She told us that she had not been successful finding suitable rocks in local creeks, but that many nurseries stocked them. She suggested large, rounded rocks, preferably those with a flattened side, so that they would remain in a stable position. She also showed us some rocks she rejected because they were too irregular or rough surfaced. Surface roughness can be reduced with wood filler or gesso, however. Certain rocks lend themselves to being painted as particular animals. Gloria also had a couple of souvenir rocks - rocks she had picked up on travels and painted with scenes from the areas where they were found.

      

 

Gloria sketched a rabbit on one rock with chalk, which shows up well and does not interfere with the paint. She uses acrylic craft paints, but said that artists' paints can also be used. She painted a patch of red on a bare area of a rock and on an area that had previously been painted white, to show us how much brighter the color was when applied over white. She finishes with a coat of clear varnish to add gloss and protect the painting. A felt circle glued to the bottom protects table surfaces. Gloria passed around several books from which had gotten ideas for painting rocks.
 

Nancy Cagle showed us several items which she had covered with gold leaf. Actually the foil was identified only as "metal foil." It may be anodized aluminum, which can be tinted many colors. For example the cat at the right was covered with a foil that was mostly gold, but had red streaks in it. The foil, which is extremely thin, comes in packets of 25 sheets that are 5 ½ inches square. Nancy said she hadn't bought any recently, but though that a packet was about $5 the last time she bought it. The object to be covered is first sprayed or brushed with a tacky sizing to which the foil sticks. Then the foil is picked up with a brush, pressed on, and rubbed smooth. Any foil that is not in contact with the sizing rubs off. The small pieces that are rubbed off can be used to fill small gaps in the gilding. Nancy demonstrated the process by gilding a picture frame.  Another idea she shared was drawing on glass with India ink, then backing this with foil, an example of which is at the right.

 

Nancy also had a silver- plated pitcher whose plating was defective and would have been expensive to replace. She chose instead to paint it silver with black accents. She then added a thin sheet of iridescent material which gave both the silver and the black areas an iridescent sheen similar to that of mother of pearl.

 

We thank Gloria and Nancy for very interesting presentations, Charlene Isbell and Ellen Foster for delicious refreshments, and those who brought paintings (shown below) to share with the group.  Proposed bylaws were distributed for consideration in April.