Musings of a Folk Artist

I have always loved painting ever since I was a little girl. Crafty things and children kept me occupied for many years.

Then along came Folk Art Painting and I really fell in love. Acrylics had arrived and along with them the ease and the colour and the timing.

Acrylic Folk Art Paint

Acrylic paint for folk artists was a blessing. There were plenty of beautiful colours - I'm in love with colour. The paints came in small quantities so you could afford to buy some lovely colours. Artists brushes had become cheaper - yippee! although the first brush I purchased for folk art (sable hair) cast 4 times what brushes cost today.

Time was a Premium

Above all, acrylic paints dried so quickly. Now time was very important for me. I had five children and lived on a farm forty minutes from the nearest town. You could say I was BUSY. I didn't have time to wait around for oil paints to dry or to do all the preparation for water colour painting. I needed something quick to do in my very short bursts of stolen time.

Acrylic paints and folk art were a godsend. It wasn't long before I was squeezing more and more breaks into my day to do a bit of painting. It was easy to do some base coat painting and sanding in between a bit of housework. And the beauty of it all was that the paint was all dry in half an hour and could be put away to make room for the children at the table.

However, it soon became a case of fitting in a bit of housework between the painting.

I started off doing small things

 

and gradually painted larger items.

 

We had lovely old panel doors in our farmhouse.

This is part of a panel I painted on one of the doors.

 

 

And eventually I wrote two books about Bavarian Folk Art.

 

This is part of a project from one of them.

 

 

 

The books can be found at http://www.allergiesandcfs.com/folk-art-books.html or

http://www.mygardentreasures.com.au/folk-art.html. Some more of my painting can be seen here.