Melinda Chan

Here's a recent painting I completed. It's a bit of mixed media with some collage as a first layer and acrylic paint on top. I don't tend to use purple too much, so it's nice to mix it up a bit and see what new color combos can bring out.

My new year's resolution this year was to complete seven canvas paintings. I've done four paintings to date with some drawings and sketchbook doodles. There are only two more months left this year, and I am currently taking an online business class, so I don't know if I will be able to meet my goal this year, but we shall see. I have been successful in staying somewhat involved with arts and crafts throughout the year, so that's good, but I can do better.

I volunteered at the museum today and got a chance to try out the project myself. We drew a pattern on a type of foam core material using a regular old pencil. Then, using a brayer and printing ink, we rolled the ink evenly onto the foam core surface and stamped the design onto the paper. I did two versions--one using a silver ink and one with a turquoise ink. Here are some photos from the project.

It's a great exercise to think about what areas to make positive or negative. You try to control the variables such as pressure and amount of ink coverage to create similar prints each time, but the variables that can affect the final output make each print unique and interesting. I plan to look into lino prints and give it try one of these days.

I've been doing a lot of painting recently, but not the usual type of painting. Rather, I've been busy painting kitchen cabinets. It's a huge undertaking, and the project isn't complete yet, but I wanted to share photos of the progress to date.

This is my first DIY home project, I learned a lot about the technical aspects of painting. I did a lot of research online to learn how to paint the cabinets. I also spent a lot learning about all the products needed for painting.

The original shelves had contact paper, so the first thing we had to do was remove the contact paper. We sanded the boards and painted them with primer, and then multiple layers of acrylic latex paint. We tackled the drawers next.

Afterwards, we applied chemical stripper and scraped off the layer of varnish on the exterior of the cabinets. To do it the right way, you should remove the doors from the cabinets, but the doors were screwed in so tightly that we couldn't get them off, so we did our painting with the doors in place, which made it very difficult.

After applying primer, we sanded and applied the paint. This was repeated a few times until it looked smooth. Actually, we so excited about painting, we forgot to apply primer to the drawers. We had to "undo" our work and scrape off the paint and apply the primer before repainting. We also discovered that the semi-gloss finish seemed a bit flat looking so we had to go out and purchase some water-based clear coat for the top layer. Between each layer of clear coat, we had to sand with a fine-grit sandpaper.

We also replaced the cabinet hardware with some bar pulls to make it look more modern. The cabinets are extremely plain, and there is no getting around that fact, so I wanted to be consistent and get simple bar pulls.

We're not finished yet, and still need to do some touch-ups, but the majority of the work is done. I've learned a lot along the way. It was also an interesting exercise because we're getting into the realm of interior design, so it involves a new element of thinking for me. Lastly, it was important to put our stamp on the kitchen. Though there is much to improve, at least it reflects our hard work.

Now that you've seen each piece separately, here's a photo of them together as part of a series.  (Chime not included.) I'm still figuring out how to hang these. For the purpose of taking this photo, I used blue painter's tape on the back, but of course that was good for only about 30 minutes.

A bigger challenge for me right now is determining the best way to display my paintings and drawings while giving me maximum flexibility to switch out my work easily without needing to hammer holes into the wall. I've been looking into Command strips of which there are many different products to choose from, but haven't tested any yet. I just don't quite trust hanging a framed piece using Command strips, so I've been leaning toward painting directly on a canvas and displaying it without a frame. Decisions, decisions.