The Beauty of Stencils Around Hand Painted Artwork

by Joel Cook, artist, owner of Twin Palms Studio in Orlando,Fl

This small painting was inspired by typical 'wine label' artwork. I made two large stencils; the lower half of the design and a separate one for the top half. I then painted the design in the traditional Italian 'Grisaille' method using only ochre, blue and white. The scene in the middle was done with watercolor washes and brown ink. The finished piece took 12 hours to complete.