Speaking of Windows....

Thought I'd share a project that I have just finished. My neighbor Kelly, had a lot of old peeling storm windows. She has an antique shop and goes to auctions often. She found these and thought that maybe an idea would pop in her head...about what she could do creatively with these things. We got together last winter and fiddled around with them and then they were put aside like so many projects that we start and never finish. She called and said that she was giving them up and wondered if I was interested in any of them. I told her that if she would give me 3...I would paint one for her and she would have it by Christmas. Giving her this date would assure that I would get to work on them and maybe finish one of them. Here is the process that I followed to complete just one. The picture below shows what they looked like when I got them.

I started by chipping away some of the old paint. I wanted it to look shabby and not polished. Talking to my daughter, I realized that this old paint could be lead based. That changed my approach to painting it. I work in a closed area in the basement with not much ventilation and didn't want to have to work with a mask on.I took it outside and sanded the loose paint.
I made a sketch of what I thought would look nice on the window. My mind was still working on what I would paint as I started out. I had trouble with the paint sticking...I didn't want to have to buy any special paint to use. So my attack changed again. I coated the glass with a medium that would stick. Then a thought came...black...I would paint the background black. Truth be told, I had a big bottle of green paint, so that's what I used on the frame.
What a bright green!!! I decided that I would antique the frame after it was dry...to tone it down. I painted it the long way, because I didn't know where she would hang it...or how much room she would have. The painting went beautifully after I put the black on. I did the border first, not knowing what would be the focal point for sure. I decided on big daisy like flowers...as you see here.
After they were completely dry, I put a coat of protective varnish on. The picture below is how it looked when Joe took it over to her.
I have two more to do. I learned a lot from this one. I would like one on my front porch...only painted the horizontal way. I can visualize big blousy geraniums. I have the whole winter to do these.

Balisha