Powertex canvas, an Italy inspired landscape

Hello, it's Kore here with this month's Italian theme! We've been spoiled with some fantastic themed projects. How about a textured landscape on canvas, inspired by those beautiful Venetian rivers?

So the theme this month is Italy and I have a confession. One of the most significant people in my life is Italian and I have never visited Italy! So I spent some time looking at some photos of the village where he lived and some of Venice. Such beautiful landscapes.

Photos from Unsplash.com

My project is a dimensional canvas using these gorgeous Italian landscapes as inspiration. I'm using card, paper and fabric and texture mediums to create the landscape and bister sprays for muted colours with lots of atmosphere.

Ingredients

Canvas or board
Powertex Ivory
Fabric, paper and card pieces of your choice, include embellishments, lace or wooden pieces you like
Powertex Easy Structure
Powertex Stone Art
Powertex 3D Sand
Powertex Bister sprays in Blue, Brown and Red
A flat brush
Large pieces of pieces for tearing as masks
A circular cut out or stencil


Step 1

Prime your canvas with Ivory Powertex. I'm using a rectangular canvas approximately 28cm x 35cm.
Choose fabric, paper and card pieces to use as textures and to give the impression of buildings or a bridge.

Use Powertex to coat and adhere the pieces. Create lots of texture in any fabric or papers to create interest.

Apply Easy Structure to parts of the canvas. Use a palette knife or plastic card to scrape it down.
When your textured pieces are in place, leave to dry.

This video gives you a speedy glimpse into how I put my first layers of texture down. You can see I had a couple of pencil lines on my canvas to help me but this isn't necessary. It's also upside down to you!

Step 2

When it's dry you can add more textures as you like. I like to add lots of organic textures using Stone Art and 3D Sand.
Brush on some Ivory Powertex onto the "buildings" and "bridge" shapes. Sprinkle the Stone Art onto the Powertex, be generous, then press into place. Gently brush away any excess Stone Art with your fingers. It can be put into a container for use later. Repeat this until you have a raised rough texture on the buildings.

I've also added Easy Structure above the bridge and then pressed a circular stencil into the paste for texture. Any stencil will work but wash the Easy Structure from your stencil straight away.

Daub on some Ivory Powertex in areas where you would like a finer texture and sprinkle 3D Sand onto it. This is a finer texture but looks great when the colour is added. When sprinkled onto wet Powertex the 3D Sand is best left to dry before the excess is brushed off.

Step 3

When all the textures are dry it's time to add colour. I'm using Bister sprays. These water based sprays are perfect for Powertex textures. The ink runs into the textures making dark shadows and picking out all the textures in the surface. Even better, the sprays will wipe away with a wet cloth to create highlights on the raised areas. I've chosen blue, brown and red for my project. The muted colours of Bister work really well for this landscape.

Spray the Bisters generously onto your canvas. Focus mainly on the textured areas and use torn paper scraps to protect areas you don't want coloured. Overlay colours while wet.

Use a wet cloth to wipe away Bister from the raised areas to create highlights.

When dry, use a brush to add Ivory Powertex for highlights or to lighten other parts of the canvas. I brushed a little at the top of the canvas and also over the "water".

Italy inspired Powertex canvas

Powertex texture products can be used in lots of ways but if you have a pot of Stone Art or Easy Structure waiting for a project, why not give a landscape canvas a try? These products are great for layering up and all work brilliantly together. They are the foundation of my mixed media art.

If you would like to see more Powertex creations pop along to The Powertex Studio facebook group where you can share your makes too. Powertex Addicts United on Instagram has lots of inspiration from across the world.

You can also follow my Powertex experiments and projects @skysagestudio on Facebook and Instagram or find my personal Powertex blogs over at koresageart.com. See you there!

Until next time, make a little space in your week to let your art out!

Kore x