On Burlap 3, Part 6

Work continues slowly. After cutting the stencil for the fan of feathers and placing it on the background, I found the Contact paper stencil was not adhering well to the acrylic (much of it had residual paper stuck to it). I left the picture alone for about 6 weeks while I tried to resolve the issue. Last week I was in a bookstore and came across Stencil 101 by Ed Roth. I was not interested in the included stencil. I was interested in a section describing the production of your own stencils. This hit me like a lightning bolt and I wondered, "Why has no one told me about this method before!?!" I read about Mylar sheets, stencil burners, pouncer brushes and spray-on, re-positionable adhesive! My answer was found. On the same trip I picked up all the supplies listed for future projects (Lincoln's head is on its way...), including the spray-on adhesive for use in this project. I carefully removed my stencil from the background, sprayed it with the adhesive, let it dry for sixty seconds (minimum) and replaced it on the background before applying the white spray paint. There were issues of the stencil not sticking in some places and the stencil curling in high-detail areas after the application of spray paint. This provided a nice amount of tolerable and interesting variation between feathers of the fan. After three coats of white paint I removed the stencil and the picture below is the result.

Have To (working title). 4'x7'.  Mixed media (acrylic, spray paint).

The next part will include the application of color, design and prints to the individual feathers. The final piece will be the character displaying the fan of feathers.

Small Work 2 + Tessellations

I continue to work on a couple small paintings. It's my palate cleanser and provides something to work on when I want more immediate results than my larger pieces (which are slowly coming along). I've used Contact paper to cover the acrylic and ink image, drawn on the plastic, removed it and cut it to provide custom pieces used for masking. It's allowed very clean lines and I've even masked some areas and stamped over the borders, allowing the creation depth in the picture. I've left the mask on the picture in the lower left corner of the painting. Once removed, the line of the central blue oval will be crisp.

Small painting. Blue Dot (working title). 24"x18". Mixed media.

I have recently been reading Designing Tessellations by Jinny Beyer. I've begun to design my own tiles and to print using some of the principles in the book. So far I'm liking the results.

A tile for tessellation. ~3.5" on a side.

Hexagonal tessellation pattern (eye-registered quick print).

I used the above tile for a background piece of a small (18"x24") watercolor. It's in early development. The tile is intended to create a string of crooked teeth, which will be replicated in the focal point of the painting. In this painting, too, I've used Contact paper for masking purposes.

Small watercolor/Rock Teeth (working title). Mixed media. 18"x24". Coldpress watercolor paper.

On Burlap 3, Part 5 + Smaller Work

A few more things to add.

In the picture below, I was testing my makeshift movable stencil using the wire and contact paper. This was the result. The contact paper began to be affected by the spray paint after about 12 feathers. I had curling of the finely cut areas and the feather was progressively distorted. The spray paint began to build up and drip as is evident. This pattern was sprayed onto constructed panel of pieced-together Bristol paper. The assemblage was about 4' x 7'.

Test print of peacock feather tail.

I decided to use this tail pattern after trying a few other patterns. However, I want the perpendicular feather, 90 degrees from the horizontal, to be one of the outermost feathers. Therefore I slightly rotated the fan in the final design. Below is the backside of the assembled sheets of bristol. I've drawn on my guides for printing and placement of feathers.

Paper ready for peacock feathers.

After I printed the feathers on the paper, I covered the paper with transparent contact paper (three overlapping strips, each about 18" wide). I proceeded to cut out the stencil with a tiny blade (similar to an x-acto knife). Three hours later I had removed the contact paper from all the feathers and my next step will be to transfer the stencil to the prepared background (see background with working title To Have)

Application of contact paper to printed fan of peacock feathers.

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I started a smaller scale project a few days ago. It's acrylic and ink on cold press watercolor paper. I've created stencils of the main areas of the painting in order to manipulate the image with greater exactness and line clarity.

Untitled work in progress. Acrylic and ink on cold press watercolor paper. ~18"x24".

On Burlap 3, Part 4

I've not stopped. The work goes on, albeit at a reduced pace for a time. I have in the last month restrung the guidelines on my large acrylic piece, have to (updated title--lower case 'h'). The now all converge on a point in the lower right quadrant and present the basic form of the peacock fan of feathers. I have developed an easily adjustable stencil mounted to a wire frame which I will move from feather location to feather location.

The wire frame with applied stencil. Piece of Bristol paper held behind stencil to add contrast. Frame size approximately 18" x 24".

The stencil is cut out of contact paper and stuck to the printing side of my frame. I will position the frame and apply white spray paint (2-3 layers) followed by blue and green layering. I think I'll use a sheet like a 'rubber dam' around the frame to prevent unintentional application of spray paint to the image. I will then carve a linoblock and print the 'eyes' of the feathers individually.

Test image created with my feather stencil. High gloss black spray paint on Bristol paper. Feather approximately 15" x 4".

After this is complete, I need to find a model for use as a photographic reference for the final piece of the picture.

Lost / On Burlap 3 Part 4

I'm reading a field guide for getting lost (not sure of exact title). I'm taking the parts of the book slowly, digesting it for ideas and imagery as I go. A few passages already resonate with me and one has provided inspiration enough for one of my next paintings, which is already in early development and process. The passage is relayed through the author but from Virginia Woolf. To summarize, what we see of the woman/mother/devoted parent (or more generally, the person) is only the cicada emerging periodically whereas the person is actually a 'wedge of darkness' that spends most of their own time in the depths.

I started with gessoed burlap (about 4'x2') and have applied the first of several layers of acrylic which will create the background.

My large scale burlap picture (tentatively titled, "Have to") is further developed. I'm nearly done with the background production work. I'm currently working out the process of stencils for feathers. I have some ideas that should work but I 'm not sold completely on a single design and so I'll continue sketching. I'm also developing my ideas for a human model/study for the painting. I want the person to be male and to silently speak of desperation and ferocity, the cornered rat the will do what it needs to in order to survive.

The strings are held at even intervals by small nails in the edges of the plywood. The will serve as a guide for the stamp I made to be applied as part of the background.

This is the background after the first round of printing.

The background after the stamp highlights were added. This will be the final background (unless I decide it needs more).

Background detail of Have to (working title). Note: stamp itself is only 1/4 of the 'sunburst.' Acrylic paint was rolled on piece of acrylic plastic before stamp was pressed into spread ink and then pressed onto background.

Accepted

I received notification today that Food Appeal has been accepted for an gallery exhibition! The show will be at Allied Arts of Yakima starting Sept 15. It is part of the Feast  exhibit. This is a juried art show and the juror was Isaac Layman. The show will run through nearly the end of October. Below is a collage of the painting (the lower right picture) and a few digital manipulations.

On Burlap 3, Part 3

After some thought, I decided to not use a word stamp on the background. That said, I decided to tackle a past issue of paper buckling when sprayed with spray paint by coating the stencil with contact paper.

Coating the stencil with contact paper.

After contact paper was applied, it was time to cut the stencil.

The completed stencil. (Note: I added stencil supports to the image which will be removed during the touch-up phase.)

Next I needed to set the stencil on the background prior to spraying with paint. I've had a problem in the past with the propellant in the spray paint lifting the stencil. To prevent this, I flipped the stencil and applied poster putty (or ticky tack, or sticky tack, or whatever it's called...) to several points of the stencil. I centered the stencil on the background and applied masking tape to supply extra hold for the stencil and to mask the background. Time to apply spray paint (white, gloss enamel paint).

Halfway through the first of three layers of spray paint.

The spray paint dried for about one half hour before removal of tape and stencil. Removal of poster putty took a few minutes. I found that the poster putty did prevent some lifting of the stencil, but the tenacious spray paint did manage to diffuse through some areas still.

Poorly lit photo of spray-painted image after removal of stencil and poster putty. (Note: the stencil supports are visible.)

The last step in preparation of the image was touch up of the image using tube acrylics, both black and white. White acrylic paint was applied with a size 6 filbert brush to both touch up the spray paint and to block out the stencil supports. Black acrylic paint (applied with the same brush) was used to touch up around areas where spray paint had diffused beyond the desired limit in order to add greater definition to the image. I have not decided whether or not I will stretch this onto a gallery frame or leave it as a roll-able piece of burlap. The title of the piece has changed from Open up to Brighter in the open. (I'll replace this picture in the next few days after I can photograph it in better light.)

Brighter in the open. 48"x24". Aug 2011.

As an end note, this picture of my wife was taken during a Bright Eyes concert at The Gorge at George, Washington at the Sasquatch Music Festival 2011.

Update:

This is the picture taken in better light.

Brighter in the open. 48"x24". Aug 2011.

On Burlap 3, Part 2

Having stretched the burlap onto pieces of plywood, I applied gesso and was ready to begin the background layers. For the larger piece (4' x 6') I used household acrylic latex paint (some flat, some eggshell luster). I spooned the paint onto the canvas making drips and drops all over, but concentrating certain colors in specific general regions of the burlap. After paint application I rolled the paint around with a 4" Speedball brayer (it took some time), varying the pressure, length and direction of stroke as I went. After this was done I still had quite a bit of excess paint so I decided to squeegee the excess, pulling it from one end to the other and collecting it in an old jar so it can be stored and used later. I applied a little more color as desired and mixed and pulled it with the squeegee.

First layer of background for 4' x 6' picture. Household paints on gessoed burlap.

For the smaller picture (approximately 4' x 2'), I used tube acrylic paints, applying the red, yellow blue and white in diagonal strips which were worked/spread using the 4" Speedball brayer. After the paint dried, I applied black acrylic paint from a tube to various areas of the background and spread it using the brayer.

First and second layers of background on approximately 4' x 2' gessoed burlap.

On the smaller picture I plan to stencil on the picture below. This image is from my computer (MacBook Pro) and has been color adjusted for saturation, exposure and contrast. Not having a printer or a digital projector, I was not sure how to replicate this image on a large scale. I had some acrylic plates used for monoprinting still in my studio space so I created a grid using permanent markers and propped the piece of acrylic against my laptop screen.

Digital photograph on computer screen with 'analog' grid overlay.

I taped together two pieces of Bristol at the proper dimensions, recreated the grid from the overlay (above picture) and proceeded to rescale the picture.

The next step will be to laminate the front of the picture prior to cutting the stencil. At the same time I will probably create a stamp for the background which will say 'Open Up.' I'll then spray paint the image onto the background, touch it up and...we'll see if it needs anything else.

On Burlap 3, Part 1

I'm working on gessoed burlap for my third and fourth projects of this type. My fourth project will have dimensions like the first two (approximately 2' x 4'). Project three is larger and has dimensions of ~4' x ~6'. In the pictures I show the stretched burlap on the pieces of plywood. For this project I changed the process slightly by including a layer of plastic cling wrap underneath the pieces of burlap. This should prevent adhesion of the gesso to the plywood. While adhesion of the gesso to the plywood does create a desirable stippling effect in the final products (some gesso remains on the plywood after removal of the burlap, thus creating small holes in the painting which are effective as texture), my last project tore in one place. I was able to patch the whole with a black gessoes piece of burlap. I patched the hole with black acrylic paint and pressed the patch (patched from the back) and the painting between two acrylic panels and a lot of books. I left it for two days before uncovering it and letting it finish the drying process. It came out looking great.

Stretched canvas on plywood with plastic clingwrap. Plywood: 4'x8'. Burlap: ~4'x~6'.

On Burlap 2

I've spent the last two weeks working out the following picture. It is 21"x42" mixed media (acrylic and spray on enamel paint) on burlap. The burlap has two coats of brushed on gesso followed by two background coats (layering) of acrylic paint. The words were printed using a lino-block. The bottle was sprayed on with the use of a large stencil I used created after photographing a glass Coke bottle. I'll be entering this piece in a local juried art contest. The theme is 'Food' (as mentioned in a previous post). This piece deals with the use of well-proportioned sex appeal to sell products. Interestingly, although the bottle fits the proportions of an 'ideal' female, the bottle is also distinctly phallic in shape yet this comparison does not as easily enter the consciousness. This bottle is intended to be appealing (yes, sexually) and it continues a tradition of forcing a model of an 'ideal' figure on women.

Food Appeal. July 2011. 21"x42". Mixed media on burlap.

On Burlap

Detail of Say Something.

A little over a week ago I started a new project. I've been interested in experimenting with different, somewhat unconventional materials. I found burlap on sale for under $2 a yard. Excellent! I purchased some burlap and primer and got started.

Burlap.

The first few steps involved stretching the burlap to a piece of plywood, stapling it in place and then priming it. I used Pratt and Lambert SuPrime interior latex wall primer/sealer, white for the job. I know that not using a standard gesso-type primer will ultimately have implications, but, I'm interested in the end effects and I have mixed feelings seeing art as something permanent. It's more romantic to see at as an ephemeral experience.

Burlap stretched, stapled and primed.

While the primer was drying I had a chance to contemplate a background. An artist friend of mine has been encouraging me to create backgrounds and then produce works on the created backgrounds. I decided to roll primary color and black acrylic paint over the entire surface. After this dried I rolled a layer of black acrylic over it all. The texture of the burlap created several well in which the final black paint layer did not settle, thus producing pockets of color from the first layer of paint.

Prepared painting surface. Overall size is approximately 24"x48".

I now needed to get down to design of the image(s) to place on this newly created surface. Starting with the prompt of consumption, I did some sketches of mouths sucking in everything around them. My first step in developing the sketch into something to paint on the surface was to photograph a study. Since I was home alone at the time I took some pictures of myself with the desired expression and used the following as my model.

Reference image for painting.

To facilitate the creation of a monochromatic image for the painting, I manipulated 'contrast,' 'exposure,' etc., and ended up with the following:

Color adjusted reference image.

I proceeded to create the sketch of this image on paper.

Sketch of reference image. Approximately 6"x8".

With my image ready, it was time to scale it up and to 'box in' the desired frame. I did this and sketched the image at the final desired size.

'Scaled up' sketch.

The next step was to create the stencil for creating the image on the painting surface. To do this I hung the above sketch on a window and covered it with paper. Through top layer I was able to discern the above sketch and proceeded to trace outline for creating my stencil.

Tracing the sketch in order to create my stencil.

After this was complete I attached the stencil outline to Bristol paper which would provide the rigid structure necessary for my stencil. Using a sharp blade I cut out the stencil. Using masking tape I fixed the stencil to the burlap and spray-painted the image.

Image spray-painted on burlap.

The bars near the nose and brow show how the entire stencil was held in place. I needed to cover these stencil supports and did by cutting another stencil which was just big enough to remove these conspicuous lines. Following this I blocked the entire area in with white acrylic paint to create a more uniform layer of white.

Face complete.

The next step was to create the wavy lines being sucked into the mouth. I created another stencil and decided the wavy lines should be yellow--bright, glossy, sunshine yellow. In order to make the yellow as bright as I wanted it to be, I applied three undercoats of white spray paint before applying three coats of the high-gloss yellow spray paint.

Addition of wavy, yellow lines.

Wavy, yellow lines now done.

At this point I felt the picture was near complete. However, during the process of spray-painting, although the stencil was taped down, it lifted in some places and the spray paint 'bled' into the black spaces. In fact, viewed full size, it is clear where the tape was placed for the wavy lines. The last step was to touch up with black acrylic to sharpen the image and its contrast and to remove 'bleeding' of the spray paint.

Say Something. 2011. 48"x24".

I was pleased with the overall quality of the final project. I'm anxious to try the process again with another image.

I will change a few things the next time I do this. When I stretched my burlap on the plywood I had nothing between the burlap and the plywood. As a result, the primer and some of the paint traveled through the fantastic texture of the burlap and effectively glued the burlap to the wood. I did pull the burlap off with minimal impact to the picture, but it was a bit anxiety inducing to remove and in the future I will include a layer of paper or plastic wrap to prevent this adhesion. In the future I will also use a regular gesso compared to a wall primer. I've read about both and decided gesso will be better for flexibility and color fastness.

Update: changed title of painting from Consumption I to Say Something.

Acrylics

I needed to paint something and this is the result. I'd recently spent several days in the rainforest and the woods near the ocean so I decided to do something that contrasted with all that green. The green does show in the painting, but, like a bright flower in the mountains, it is no more than a few freckles. The picture maintains a symmetry of balance from left to right in areas of shade and light. Again, out of contrast, the majority in this picture is light while certain smaller portions hold the shade.

NW Contrast. 24"x36".  Acrylic on canvas. July 2011.

In Public

I've been traveling the last few weeks and had an opportunity to see and experience different areas of Washington State. My brother, a geologist, and I decided to go on a 'rocks and minerals' series of outings. We centered our searches near the Ingalls opheolite sequence near Blewett Pass, WA. Apart from searching for and finding serpentinite, calcite, chlorite, and garnets, we also found soapstone. Soapstone is made of talc and has a value of '1' on Moh's Hardness Scale. I, of course, took advantage of this in order to leave my mark with a rock hammer. In the picture below, notice that others had exploited this physical property as well, however, others had use what appears to have been wood saws and power tools. This cutting of the soapstone created a series of flat faces and unnaturally sharp corners for a talc-based rock. In order to present contrast to this geometry, I began my design with the circle at the top of the design and it eventually grew into what is pictured. The indentations cover an area about two feet square.

Rock indentations created June 2011. Located near scenic viewpoint north of Lake Wenatchee.

The following come from July 2011 and were from locations on Washington's Olympic peninsula.

Carving in large piece of driftwood on Rialto Beach near La Push, WA. Approximately 18"x18". Knife used was a Remington 4-inch blade knife.

Rock arrangement in Hoh River (rock bar in middle of river) near Bogachiel Campground/State Park, WA. Design approximately 20'x15'. The shape is consistent with above pictures, although the perspective is reversed. The perspective is from the upstream view. The arrangement was done conscious of the river and that as it rises, the relief of the arranged rocks will show for a period of time as the water rises around it. Note: I did embellish this image with two arcs of stone near the base of the 'head' of the design.

Stitch it up 1

I was at the Goodwill store today looking for patterns for a different project (I was looking for printed images or fabrics for creating lightning bolts or electrical patterns) and while browsing I came across the random bags of stuffed animals and I got an idea. I decided to purchase a bag of said animals, a bag of interesting thread (appears to be homespun wool thread), and my idea was to disassemble and reassemble stuffed animals in interesting combinations. I should get to other creations with time but I first started with a bright green monkey and a purple and orange elephant. I recombined the heads of these stuffed animals and then decided to attach the newly formed head to an old "Russell Stover," chocolates-associated kangaroo. "Roo" was removed. Head was removed. Recombined head one was attached in  place of head of kangaroo head. Other head was attached to the pouch. One bright green monkey arm was included in place of an elephant ear on the pouch-associated head. The wool yarn used initially proved too difficult for my upholstery needle (which broke) and I ended up using a heavy duty upholstery thread for the rest of the project. Additionally, I included a sound and LED light unit from a Carter's baby toy in the head of the primarily-monkey head: squeeze the head, it plays a lullaby and two parts of the head now light up red with the music. I'll try to post more pictures of additional creations as they are made.

Complete view of finished product. Total height is about 6". I could call it "Elepharoonkey," ....

Right profile view of finished product.

Close-up of 'revised' head of stuffed animal.