Childhood in the Country -A Peek-A-Boo Project

As I have stated many times before I am a county boy at heart. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania  in a simpler time that has instilled in me a love of quiet and solitude. I try to steer clear of drama and those who thrive on it. "People who have no life will always try to start drama in yours" is a quote I fully believe. Uphill from my childhood home there was a dairy farm I spent many hours at. They had cows, horses, chickens, pigs. dogs, and barn kitties to love and adore. I would help them with their chores and bailing hay and straw from time to time. This story from my childhood Waiting for Robins tells of my childhood spent in the country. When I saw Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Milk Can I was taken back to milking time and my childhood. These are the inspiration for this artwork.

Supplies:  Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts-Milk Can, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts-Hypercium Berries, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts- Wildflowers, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts-Fern Fronds, Vintage Cards of Your Choosing, Plastic Oval Template, Pencil, Scissors, Embossing Powders-Hammered Metal, Weathered Wood, Mercury Rising, Etched Platinum, Clear Embossing Ink Roller, Rubber Baster Brush, Heating Tool,  Bundled Sage Distress Stain, Titan Green Pale, Iridescent Stainless Steel, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold Acrylic Paint, Paintbrush, Weldbond, Green Stains and Sprays, Green Infusion Stains, Green Acrylic Paints, Green Embossing Powders, Random Acrylic Paints, Ruby and Purple Fingernail Polish, Golden Heavy Matte Medium, Plastic Spatula, Random Embellishments- Pastes, Spices, Materials, Cheap Hairspray, Matte Medium, Vintage Cigar Lid and Bottom

1.  Gather Materials.

2.  Use a Plastic Oval Template to Trace Part of Vintage Cards you will use as focal point on GSLC Milk Can.

3.  Cut out with Scissors.

4.  Use  a Rubber Baser Brush to randomly apply  clear embossing ink to GSLC Milk Cans.

5.  Sprinkle with Hammered Metal, Weathered Wood, Mercury Rising, Etched Platinum Embossing Powders and cure with Heating Tool.

6.  Apply Bundled Sage Distress Stain to fill in any empty spaces.

7.  Next add Patina with a small paintbrush and Titan Green Pale, Iridescent Stainless Steel, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold Acrylic Paint.

8.  Use Weldbond to Glue cutout vintage cards to center of GSLC Milk Cans. Dry flat pressing down with a heavy book.

9.  Color Fern Fronds with layers of Green Stains and Sprays, Green Infusion Stains, Green Acrylic Paints, Green Embossing Powders. Curing with a Heat Tool between  layers.

10.                Next Use Acrylic Paints of your choosing to paint GSLC Wildflowers and Hypercium Berries.

11.                Add interest and details using Ruby and Purple Nail Polish.

12.                Decide on a design for you flowers, fern fronds, and milk cans.

13.                Add the design to the vintage cigar box lid and bottom substrate using Golden Heavy Matte Medium and a Plastic Spatula.

14.                Some Flowers needed extra layers to better blend into one of my designs.

15.                Dry Completely and Flat weighing down with a heavy book.

16.                Add patina and texture using Random Embellishments- Pastes, Spices and Materials using Cheap hairspray to seal them in.

17.                Once fully dry add a quick coat of matte medium to further seal in all tiny pieces.

Some Final Thoughts.

My childhood is best understood from afar. As I was living it I did not appreciate it's bounty. I had a wandering heart, not easily satisfied by simple pleasures. I longed for the city to be free of all the entrapment I perceived of my childhood home. I've lived longer away from my childhood home now than the time I spent there. Our  family homestead was sold last fall and because of Covid restrictions I was unable to attend the auction and have not returned for over a year now. I miss it, I want to say my goodbyes to lay it to rest. I am more of my childhood county boy than I'd like to admit. I no longer desire the delights of my youth, I've traveled to many a wonderful places and have been to some of the bigger cities around the world. I now want to stay home to be still, to take in the small pleasures each day offers. Seek beauty while it may be found, soothe your soul with contentment, stay true to yourself and live a life worthy of others desiring. Wendell Berry  is one of my favorite authors and best describes my understanding:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.