24Steps Art and Design

St David, of course, is the patron St of Wales and there are, in our culture, several interesting tales about him. I particularly remember the one about the meal he was invited to when the chef had poisoned he food. He was warned in advance so he took 3 pieces of food, one he gave to a dog, one to a crow and the third he blessed and ate. The dog and crow both died but St David was fine. I always felt sad that the dog had died…

I spent my young years in Bronant in mid Wales going to a County Primary school and learning to speak Welsh. St David’s day was a special day for us when we got to dress in traditional Welsh costume and do creative activities like singing and painting and reciting. Of course, a lot of those paintings were of daffodils which I still love to paint. To the right is a painting I did some years ago. It was done on A3 canvas paper starting with a very fun inky technique. I added acrylic inks to the page, spritzed with water then scrunched clingfilm on top. I love the marble effects this gives. Then I painted in acrylic using a pallet knife (a favourite technique) to create the daffodils.

I thought I would paint a daffodil inspired page this year to make St David’s day cards. I painted in acrylic using a pallet knife for a thick application on top of a red background. It’s quite highly contrasting being in traditional Welsh complimentary colours of red and green but for some people with eyesight conditions it may be hard to decipher.

This is a really rough and ready and somewhat naive style. It was probably rushed a little bit but also the photos above are not as clearly in focus as I would like. Having said that I do like the page itself so will try to get a better photo before printing cards.

I hope this has inspired you to find out a bit more about our patron St, the humble leek, the radiant daffodil or the mighty dragon and maybe create your own card design.

Hugs, Ceri xx



Tagged as: Tags acrylic, colour, layers, wales