The first project planned for the new term on the Intermediate course had an option to create a textured surface on which to apply paint. I was looking forward to bringing along all kinds of texture materials to the first session. Unfortunately the first session has been postponed and those of you on the course will know by now that we will not be returning to college this week. However I thought that I would put up this post to show you a few images and explain how I have used texture materials in the past.
I went through a stage some years ago of creating large paintings with names like ‘Erosion’, ‘Storm’ and ‘Edge’, inspired by the Dorset cliffs and the Norwegian fjords. I started these pieces by pasting on to the canvas a range of materials such as sand, wood ash, sawdust, thread, string, muslin or scrim, hessian and paper pulp using PVA glue. These materials were often layered one on another. I also mixed up powdered filler with water and scraped it across the other textures. This could then be sanded back, before or even after painting.
I still have two of these paintings and have taken these photos. ‘Erosion’ hangs on the stairs making it really difficult to photograph. The lighting isn’t very good but I did manage to get the whole thing in by leaning over the bannisters. There are two details of the painting too. One from the lower left corner and the other, centre left showing where I had stitched thread through the canvas and also how I had let the paint drip to replicate the liquid mud that was flowing down the cliffs. This canvas started out with a lot of texture on it. I wasn’t too happy so I removed the canvas from the frame and folded it until a lot of the material fell off. I replaced the canvas on the frame and completed the painting. While this seemed a drastic move, it captured the feeling of the cliff eroding away.
The second painting is hanging in an awkward place to photograph so I am just showing some details from it. I had to use flash so there is a bit of a shine as I used a lot of glaze medium mixed with the paint. On this painting ‘Storm’ I used paper pulp (in the first of these details) which produced a lovely effect. To make the paper pulp I broke up cardboard egg boxes into tiny pieces, which I soaked in water for a few hours. Then the pulp is whizzed up in a food processor to produce a grey mush. It is best to use this soon after you make it – If you leave it sitting around for too long it doesn’t smell all that good, which I expect is the glue used to form the boxes. It’s a bit of a messy process but worth it. Stick to the canvas or board with PVA glue – pasting over the top too.
After I had stuck all the texture materials on to the canvas, I let it dry and then painted the whole thing with gesso or acrylic primer to give a uniform white surface on which to apply the paint. Sometimes I used oil paint and other times acrylics and then oils. You can get some good effects by applying a layer of dark paint, really pushing it into the cracks and then wiping it off the surface or dragging another colour across the ridges. Using transparent glazes works well too. As I mentioned earlier you can use a sanding pad to remove texture or paint but be careful not to make a hole in your canvas or you will have to patch it up on the back. I speak from experience!
I hope that you find these images interesting and helpful to your own artwork if you are going to work in this way.
I found an article the other day about a group of Swedish artists who call themselves Anonymouse. They create tiny buildings for mice – shops and apartments – and then instal them at pavement level. They use recycled materials. No one knows who these artists are – they are certainly very skilled model makes. The buildings light up at night. There is an element of humour too – see the LP covers in the Ricotta record shop window. There are more examples online.
