WHO'S THE BEST BONDING PRIMER OF THEM ALL?

I have gotten in the habit of bringing home all different kinds of items to paint.  I don't just shop all the sales at stores.  I make lots of trips to thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets. And I bring the car to a screeching halt to check out promising piles of discards on the curb. I have snagged canvases, frames, lumber, and furniture.  LOTS of furniture.  Upcycling is fun to do, and can turn someone's trash into someone else's treasure while making me a little money. (art for art's sake is nice, but the electric company still expects cash)

Painting on any surface that already has a finish in it can be very tricky though.  While your painting may look nice, if it won't stick to the surface you wind up with a finished piece that cannot handle any kind of use.  Who wants a chair or a table that loses its paint with every casual touch?

I paint mostly in acrylic, so I need a reliable way to cover a previous finish. I have sanded a couple. But sanding a large piece before painting is horribly time consuming.  I want to find a quick and easy alternative.  Sure hope there is one!

I tried using housepaint once.  BIG mistake!  It did not bond to the wood, so the primer plus all my painting peeled off in large, floppy strips.

I ran across a good product from Dixie Belle paint that is called "slick stick". 

This primer coat was developed specifically to allow decorative artists to paint over glossy finished surfaces and adhere the paint.  I was impressed with the results.  Unfortunately it is a little in the pricey side, so I have had to save it for really special projects.

One tip for using Slick Stick by Dixie Belle paint: always cover the mouth of the jar with plastic wrap before you screw the lid back on.  When they say it adheres well, they are not kidding.  It will adhere to both the lid AND the jar, making getting the jar open next time a real workout.

I tried using DecoArt's paint adhesion medium, with some good results.

 It is easy to mix with your basecoat paint.  But it comes in little bottles.  To tackle a large piece of furniture you would have to have a LOT of those little bottles.

One good thing about using Dixie Belle and DecoArt products:  you are dealing with good, reputable companies that specialize in decorative painting products.  One thing you DON'T want is an unpleasant surprise. (No, I don't get any kickbacks from these companies--I just like their products for this.)

I asked the manager of a local paint company if he had a primer that would work.  He advised me to read the label carefully, and always look for the words "bonding primer" in the title and description of the product.  I have tried several out--with mixed results.  Some have left a lot of brush marks or sponge marks no matter what tool I used, others have not had good adhesion to the surface. I was often not sure what type of finish I was covering up, (oil based? water based?) so I don't know if that impacted results or not.  

I also tried spraying pieces with a matte varnish, but sometimes this just caused bubbling or crackling of the original finish.  Wound up making more work for myself.

So I am opening the floor for discussion here.  Have any readers found a good solution?  Please share it in the comments.  I would love to find a dependable, affordable, step one for upcycles!!

Here are 3 of my successful upcycles of curbside browsing.  I am currently taking on a huge one--a dining table with matching chairs.

👀Into the future--NFTs?

I love to learn new things. Self-education, to me, is thrilling, especially with the web now offering us infinity at our fingertips. Unfortunately,  much  of what is out there is less than informative. A lot of people dispense pure garbage, frequently with a sales pitch involved. Trying to get unbiased and  clear information about jumping into the world of NFTs as an artist is often frustrating. 

 Article after article I find affiliate links, which tend to be biased, to say the least. Plus, many of them are "get rich quick" plans. We all know how those usually turn out.

 But as an artist, I want to get my work out there and selling. I have found some ways to digitally enhance my paintings and I think the end results are good. I want to get them out there in the electronic art world in front of buyers.

 Deciding whether to create art in acrylics or oils is a choice.   Deciding how to mint and sell art as NFTs is a nightmare..   Opensea, Nifty Gateway, Rarible, literally hundreds more options, all tied to the world of cryptocurrency which to me  is a sci-fi encounter in itself! I don't want to sink my meager income into something that will not work. Plus, before I finish reading a tutorial, the information it is becomes obsolete.  

So I want to hear from y'all--have you launched NFT art, and how? Is it selling? What minting options and platforms actually perform?   Please share your stories here in the comments!.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone!!!

Whether you are hitting a creative wall, or charged up with ambition, or just wanting to try something out, take a risk!  Get out of your comfort zone completely and dive into something new!  You may find that it totally re-energizes all your artistic outlets.

There are worlds of instructions online on how to get started in just about anything, and plenty of them are FREE FREE FREE! (Which is great because it leaves you more money for art supplies😜)

I got interested in creating abstracts with pouring techniques mainly to end a creativity dry spell.  I didn't really think it was going to be my cup of tea. 

I got a cheap set of little bitty bottles of paint (from the clearance aisle, of course).  I snagged a few used canvases dirt cheap and gessoed over them and got started.

Before long I was experimenting with mixing my own paint, using different additives,

heat and air...and the experiments quickly began to produce results I liked. 

Apparently other people have liked them too, as several have already sold.

Have you had a positive experience trying something outside your artistic comfort zone?  Please share it in the comments!

painting tip

I won't bore you with a wordy post today.  Quick painter's tip:  those glass plates from the bottom of the microwave make GREAT re-usable pallets!  Easy to clean and can be found free or cheap all the time!

Do YOU have a painter's tip?  Share it here!

It was a dark and stormy day....

 Booked into a three day long arts and crafts fair,  I was keeping an eye on the forecast.  Friday was fine with slight chance of storms predicted for Saturday.  By 10 Saturday morning, chance of storms had gone up to 30 percent.  By noon, the forecast had completely changed and severe storms were expected by 6pm.  Fortunately, since I had been worried about the weather, I had taken my spare tent instead of my good one.  I managed to get all my art into my plastic storage boxes and under my table.  Then I tarped the table just to be safe.  As I was pulling out of the lot the storm was really upon us, and I noticed a couple of tents were already blown away.  Mine had gridwall walls attached to the frame plus a set of weights, so it was heavy enough to remain in place at least. I got a text off about the loose tents to the event organizer.

On the drive home, the wind lifted my trailer up in the air twice.  Pulling a trailer that is flying in the air like a kite's tail is an experience I would not care to repeat.  

The organizer called me at home to let me know my tent was in place but was completely collapsed.  Sunday morning I checked the forecast...again 30 percent chance of storms, so instead of setting back up I just loaded our.  My stuff had all stayed dry under the tarp, so no real harm done.  The few pieces I had left uncovered were yard art and could handle getting wet. The spare tent was one I had gotten for free.  Only the gridwall had kept it in place...almost all the upper pieces were mangled.  Into the dumpster it went.  Most other vendors suffered damages and some had already left.  We all figured it was a strong wind shear that just swept across the grounds, or maybe a small tornado.  25,000 locals lost power and a number of neighborhoods flooded, so I figure I got off pretty easy this time.

Now to start getting ready for the event coming up Wednesday...oh yeah, slight chance of storms that day.  Good grief!

All I Want For Christmas

I am running very late. I don't have any Christmas trees up yet. I really need to start decorating for Christmas.

 To do this, I will first have to remove literally hundreds of painted snowflakes, Santas, snowmen, Christmas gnomes, angels and more. I have been selling painted decor at holiday markets galore. And having to paint new stock in between events. My displays have included mtiple lighted Christmas trees, garland, yard art, ornaments--I paint a lot of everything. A lot of items sold. 

  But the rest of the stuff is all over my house.

I could take the easy way out, I suppose, and just decorate with my display stuff. But I want a change of scenery, folks. I want my treasured heirloom ornament collection that dates back to my very first Christmas. 

 Which takes several trees to hold. 

And I am just about jollied out. I want to prop up my feet and read my latest painting magazines. 

 Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one in the household who knows how to run a dishwasher, washing machine, or broom. 

 Plus it is time to start getting stuff ready to sell for Mardi Gras.

 So Santa, I will pass on the jewelry, the furs, the designer bags, etc. If you could bring me a maid...early!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

betsylevels.com

Apprentice yourself to BOOKS

 🎨Some folks (rather snooty in tone) call decorative painting a craft or just a hobby, not "real" art.

Hogwash.

The roots of all art are primitive people decorating functional objects and even cave walls.  They often seem to have believed they were adding significance and even supernatural power by the act of embellishment.  For thousands upon thousands of years, secrets of method and technique were jealously guarded.  Even into the Renaissance, apprentice painters followed the patterns, techniques, and instructions of their master painters, learning skills they could later use in their own original works.

Decorative painting teaches a myriad of skills and techniques that can be used later in original works. And when it is original, folks, that is art.

I'm glad we don't have to be apprenticed out to temperamental masters to learn to paint today!  We can find a lot of good instruction free online.  And of course, to work more at your own pace, there are books.  I have (to my household's dismay) one of the most expansive collections of decorative painting books in the country.  It takes up four tall file cabinets and a half dozen tall bookshelves.  Some of these titles are out of print and date back to the heyday of tole painting in the early 70's.  

And I don't even use patterns anymore...I sit down and freehand everything!!  But those books have given me incalculable instruction and inspiration. ( And I have let my family know that the entire collection is to go to my artistically inclined granddaughter upon my death and not sold for a quarter each at a huge garage sale.)

I recommend you check out secondhand sources for some of these older books on decorative painting.  And one of the newest entries into the used book market is Dead Tree Dreams, out of Nacogdoches, Texas.  They are a small locally owned business, and we all need to support more of those.  Although they have only been live for a few days, I am quite impressed by a bookstore run by actual readers, not just hawkers of goods. Their inventory is already changing  and updated frequently, so check back often to see what's newest.  

Check them out!

Dead Tree Dreams...Good Books, Good Company

UPDATE:  Dead Tree Dreams will be opening a brick and mortar location in early 2023 at 115 North St in Nacigdoches, TX.

Map

And as always, feel free to check my art out at 

betsylevels.com
My site for my fine art canvases and merchandise

Flamboyant Flamingoes
Gift items all featuring my flamingo art

Betsy's Angelic Gifts
Gift items with my angel art

Feminist Fashions

New, with a few items for the woman who will not be remembered for keeping her mouth shut