draw

I just came to the stunning realization that I'm only four posts away from 500. 500?! I can't believe it. I only know that I started blogging about 10 minutes after I discovered what a blog was, with no idea what I was letting myself in for. To celebrate this momentous event I am having a draw for a print. I'm not sure yet what I'm offering (depends what's available) but there will be a selection of several A4-sized (8.25" x 11.75") prints available to the winner. Stay tuned.

Meantime, to enter all you need to do is leave a comment on this, my 496th post (thanks for the idea, Dinah!). Post #500 will reveal the winner, names drawn from a hat.

As you can see by the image, I have been experimenting. The original of this print is huge: 48" x 48" or 122 cm x 122 cm. What I did here was take a print (306 gsm Hahnemuhle Photo Rag) of the painting and mount it on an 8" x 8" x 1.5" cradled wood panel. I gessoed the panel first and painted the sides raw umber, then attached the print with matte acrylic gel medium. The whole thing is then sealed with the medium, the light texturing on the surface giving it the illusion of an original painting. All materials are the best I could find and completely archival. I was chuffed as all get-out at the results. This one's at Etsy (check out my new shop banner) and I plan to try this with more prints. If there's anything you've seen that you'd like me to do up, I'll be trying the following sizes: 6" x 6" ($25), 6" x 8" ($30), 8" x 8" ($35) and 8" x 10" ($40).