A "Crafty Lady" project

On Memorial Day weekend, the North River Arts Society will host the annual Festival of the Arts. Every year, member artists contribute painted items; floor clothes, pillows, bird houses. This year, it's mailboxes. I always volunteer for this because it is the kind of project my Mom loved to do. She called herself "The Crafty Lady" and did amazing things with anything; from glue guns to dynamite. No kidding. So yesterday I got out the "craft" paper, masking tape, and acrylics and enjoyed an early Mother's Day! 

My initial idea was to do mine  in PLAID. My rule on these projects is to use ONLY things I have on hand. Being materially limited makes one more creative, I think. The first thing I did was cover the red flag with masking tape and spray paint it this "yale" blue. (It was either that or black.) 

With my paltry collection of acrylic paints, I mixed viridian and cad yellow to make a "preppy" green. 

That's masking tape that is covering the blue. When it's dry, I'll go in the other direction with thinner tape in a lighter green. I'm thinking I'll add a thin line of bright yellow to that, but we'll see.  Or red. Although  that bright red flag will take care of that.  Stay tuned.  Meanwhile,  

While I was waiting for everything to dry, I thought it'd be fun to experiment with acrylics, since they were out. I wanted to see how they would work if applied like I do with oils, using a big brush, quickly. EEESH! Doesn't work. Every medium has it's advantages, and I have total respect and admiration for acrylic painters. Enough said.