Sheepish

 You guys may remember When I posted my  French Bee Tray I mentioned my love of trays. Well I had these two old metal trays hanging around. I bought them for a dollar each at the local produce outlet about 12 years ago or more. I was very tired of them, not to mention scrubbing them had scratched them up pretty good and they just looked dated. I decided to give them a new look.

Since I've recently become enamored with pastoral paintings, specifically of sheep  and cows I decided to add a pastoral scene to my trays.  Here's were I started. 

Why did I ever Like this? anyway I did a  Google search and found the paintings of Thomas Sidney Cooper.
Cooper (1803-1902) devoted his life to painting sheep and cows. His work is on display in many art galleries around the world. I loved them and had a hard time deciding which ones to choose. Finally I chose two and set about deciding what to do. For the first tray I used the same ink transfer method that I used on the  French Bee Tray. I primed it and painted it first in antique white, then I painted the outside edges in Aegean Blue and went over that with a wash of Sharkey Gray, then I dry brushed the tray with Sharkey Gray to distress it. Here's  the after:

The edges transferred in a jagged fashion which was perfect for the distressed look and  the colors are soft and muted.

   

For the second tray  I decoupaged the image to the tray after priming and painting it. I painted the edge of the tray in Magnetite and the tore the edges of the painting before gluing it to the tray, after it was in place I dry brushed over everything with the Sharkey Gray paint to give it a distressed look.  This is the second tray:

I'll  probably frame some of these painting to use around the house, its a thrifty way of changing out the art work and getting a new look.  Well back to furniture. What have you been up to? I'll be joining these parties this week,

                                              Between Naps On The Porch for Met Monday

                                              Savvy Southern Style For Wow Us Wedne

                                             My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday