Part 2 Using Stained Stencils as Collage Elements

Please click on any of the images below to enlarge it and better see detail.

The above artwork, on stretched canvas, was created with stencils designed by these StencilGirl designers --

Curves (6" x 6") by Mary Beth Shaw

Undulating Line Waves (9" x 12") by Trish McKinney

For the art above, the technique I used is on a video that's included with the May 2019 StencilGirl StencilClub 3-piece stencil set.  After that paint had dried, I used one of the stained stencils -- Curves -- as a collage piece.  It's glued to the canvas at the middle left edge. 

I used the same approach in developing the artwork below.  But this time, I glued the stained stencils to the canvas first. Then I painted over them.  Stencils used:  Valerie Sjodin's 9" x 12" Spirit Wind Mask and Trish McKinney's Criss-Cross Ribbon Swirls (9" x 12/".)

Below is an artwork created with several of my stencils, including my Palm Fronds Silhouette stencils (which come in 2 sizes -- 6" x 6" as well as 4" x 4".)  Those two stencils were the stained ones that -- as a last step -- I cut apart and added as collage pieces, one in the upper left and one in the middle left.  The background had been created with acrylic paints, molding paste and pastel crayons, using my 6" x 6" Mimosa stencil, my 9" x 12" Mimosa stencil, and my 6" x 6" Kaleid stencil. 

The next pair of photos show a diptych I created using 9" x 12" Soulful Scribbles stencils by Traci Bautista.  My final step was to cut a pair of columns from two of Traci's paint-stained stencils, then to glue one onto each piece in the two-piece set (entitled Rainbow.)

In the above artwork on stretched canvas, the background was created with a 9" x 12" StencilGirl stencil --Letter Mania by Suzi Dennis. The acrylic paint-stained stencil filling the bulk of the area is my 9" x 12" Branching Blossoms Silhouette.  To use my stained stencil as the centerpiece, I cut it free from its border and pressed it into a still-wet layer of heavy-body matte medium gel.

Regarding the complex abstract below:  My first step was to lay in a background using acrylic paints and acrylic-painted collage papers.  Many of those papers had originally been printed with stencils.

Then I went into a process of auditioning  a lot of paint-stained stencils, all of which I cut into assorted shapes before adding them as collage elements.  These stencils included:

(1) my 6" x 6" Sassy Spray  

(2) my 9" x 12" Prayer Flags

(3) my 9" x 12" It's a Jungle Out There

(4) my Palm Fronds Silhouette stencils (which come in 2 sizes -- 6" x 6" as well as 4" x 4".)

(5) my 6" x 6" Mimosa

(6) my 6" x 6" Small Dangled Pods  (part of my 4-piece Pods series)

(7) 9" x 12" Web by Mary Beth Shaw

(8) 9" x 12" Soulful Scribbles stencils by Traci Bautista

(9) 6" x 6" MB Makes Marks Pipette by Mary Beth Shaw

Above:  this artwork was juried in to the 2019 Open Juried Show at the Guild of Creative Art, Shrewsbury, NJ, where, in addition, it received the award for Best Abstract.

Thanks for coming to see Part 2 of my examples of stained and scissors-altered stencils adhered to artworks!

Part 3 will follow.

To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.