The Face of Nature - Festival Inspire Public Art Exhibition

The Face Of Nature - paper flowers on canvas
by artist Chantal Larocque

 Hello my Sweets!

The Summer season is settling in comfortably and once more Festival Inspire is giving us a refreshing splash of colors --not only throughout Moncton but in seven more cities around our beautiful Province of New-Brunswick! This year is my third collaboration with Festival Inspire and I'm so excited!

The project was to create an art piece that will glow with the help of a black light! So of course I dug out all my neon colored paper and paint and started making paper flowers - It took me a while before I could visualized the whole piece in my head (neon hues are NOT my usual palette - I had to put aside my prejudice in order for my creative juice to start flowing) - also -  if you know me - I'm not one to draw sketches of designs in the making - ideas just pops up and then the magic begin! I found this 4ft x 3ft canvas and I knew this would be perfect for the Art in The Dark exhibition. 

I couldn't resist to take a few shots outside in my garden!!!

Since I started to make loads of neon paper blooms - I added a pop of drama with the green sculpted face that I covered  it's surface with black paint, green crepe paper and a thick coat of Mod Podge - once dried I added a coat of clear glow in the dark paint-- then I surrounded the face with hundreds ivy leaves that have reflective lines painted on each one of them - all  mounted on short stems.  - I thought the fan type leaves would add dimension and of course I added a few mini neon flowers all over the dark green. - I'm totally obsessed with this piece that I  called The Face Of Nature.   You can now see the canvas at STILE's window front in downtown Moncton 801 Main Street Moncton, NB.

Here are photos of the project in the making! I used  templates from my DIY book Bold & Beautiful Paper Flowers - I resized/ enlarged most of them to make 5 - 6 " diameter flowers. 

Best Selling DIY Book
Bold & Beautiful Paper Flowers
by Chantal Larocque

12"x 12" of mix blooms -
help to calculate how many
I have to make to cover
the whole surface!!!

Laying the blooms onto the canvas - no glue yet

adding the face to see how much space it will take

Hot glue all the flowers

now the piece starts to take shape!

Adding the face and the ivy leaves

in my garden with The Face Of Nature.
Notice my book -"The Garden Awakening"  a favorite by author MARY REYNOLDS with her roots in natural gardening theory, Mary seeks to create spaces that are healing, truthful and magical.

The Face Of Nature with artist Chantal Larocque

So...If you are in town - come see the piece with your own eyes - 
who knows...maybe we'll see each other!!!

Thank you again Festival Inspire for this wonderful opportunity to have a part into your fabulous world!!!

Until the next time,
Live Life In Full Bloom - and remember Life Is Too Short to Say NO to Paper Flowers!!!