Happy Accidents

Handmade cards by MTaylor Studio.

My grandma has a shed full of old frames and dried up art supplies. She always shared her love of art and wanted us to be able to use what supplies we needed. She came from an era of save and the lure of a sale. I can remember her teaching me to dip the canvas in water to help dilute the primer. When I would squeeze out a whole tube of paint, I could feel the level of concern coming from her eyes. Large families get creative on how to take care of the tribe and saving for everyone. I recently received a box of oil paint from my grandmas studio, I love seeing the variety of brands and colors and the sale stickers. I have an old lemon yellow that has an Odegards sale sticker of a dollar on it.

When I am cleaning up from a project or needing brainstorming play time, I use multi-media paper to play with the extra pigments on my pallet board. I even cut open the tubes to scrape out all of the color. It is carefree and fun to mix different mediums and colors. I sometimes use the brayer to help remove pigments from the abstract line pieces that I rub oil paints into. The results of this play and using up everything to the last drop are beautiful handmade abstract cards. The best random happy accidents appear and lend to a bigger idea.