Bird House

I was honored to be asked to create a birdhouse for a fund-raising event for the Ronald McDonald House in Denver.  As you probably know, I volunteer there for 3 hours a week, manning their front desk and everyone knows I'm an artist since I bring my sketchbook there to work on when things slow down (which is not very often!)

But as soon as I said "yes!", I started to worry whether I could create something that everyone would love.  (Yes, most artists I know are a little insecure when doing a commission — including me!)  I finished it today and I actually like it!  (I hope they do too!)

Here's how I made it.

I bought a wooden birdhouse from Amazon to serve as my substrate.  I covered it with gesso and then stenciled on it with moulding paste to create the textured surface.   I spent a good amount of time figuring out what spray acrylics (Marabu) would blend into the look I was going for and starting with the yellow at the top, lime green in the middle and blue at the bottom, I sprayed away.

Thinking it needed a more rustic look, I dripped some Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (Golden High Flow) on the top and sprayed it with some water.  I painted the windows with Paynes Grey fluid acrylic.

Bought a fake bird and some fake leaves from Michaels.  I cut the leaves into smaller leaves and glued them onto the roofs to make them look like shingles.  Attached the bird to the top and I'm done!

I've never done anything like this before so it was very challenging to go out of my comfort zone (fiber) and into a mixed media zone but now I'm thinking of how to make a birdhouse from fabric!  We'll see how that goes!
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