More Stripes, Meditations on Color

Here are a few more stripe pieces. They ARE very meditative to do, and I find that I paint over them quite a lot, trying out one color, and then tweaking it or changing it altogether. Very slow and focused. One of the projects in De-Stress with Art is STRIPES.

18"x24"on wood panel

24"x24" on wood panel

18"x24" on wood panel

20"x20" on canvas

Detail of the piece below.

18"x24" on wood panel

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Extreme Layering - collage, paint, sanding

These photos show a sequence of progress on one of my 24"x24" panels. They begin with loads of collage, carefully applied so that everything lies flat. Then they get painted, sanded, painted, collaged again, etc. in no particular order. In the video I'm doing a little hand-sanding.

This is a few layers of collage.

then paint

After a good sanding with the power sander

More paint...

more of everything...

some linework

lots of veiling and more line work...

And then some "reverse collage": I collage painted papers with the paint side down. When it's dry, I sand away some of the paper, and the paint shows through. Such surprises!  This definitely takes you out of your "planning" mode. You can't possibly know what happens next.

More sanding

More painting. Here it begins to take on a clear direction. I consider this a "possibility", not a mandate. So I will go down this road a ways and see if it sticks, but I end up in the weeds, another possibility will be evident, I'm sure.

This is where the piece is at this point. I'll futz with it a bit and look again.

Hand sanding gives you more control over how much material you remove, so it's good for getting into smaller areas. Here is a video of me working on two different pieces:

Mounting on Wood Panel

I already did one video tutorial on mounting works on paper to wood panel, but that was quite a while ago, so I thought it time for an update.  In this video I start by showing you how I mount the stripes, in sections, to the 12"x36" panels.  Then I show you the next steps - cutting off the overhang, and painting the edges - on a smaller piece.

I always cut my substrate paper a quarter inch larger than the panel on which it is to be mounted so that there is a bit of overhang.  The 12" stripes are cut to 12.25"; my 8"x8" pieces begin as 8.25"x8.25".  If you leave more than a quarter inch, the cut-off can interfere with your composition.  I use PVA glue for mounting.  Some artists use acrylic gel medium.

You Can Own One Of These

Yup. That's right. Just e-mail me to indicate which one you want (middle row, third from left, for example), and I'll have the Moore Free Library hold it for you.  The pieces are $250 each, and some of that goes to support the library.  I'll ship it at the end of September.

See a slide show of individual pieces here (or click on Slideshow above).

OR.... you can make your own!  It's really fun.  Make yourself a big stash of patterned papers - make sure to include patterns of all different scales, colors, degrees of contrast, etc.  I use Cheap Drawing Paper for the collage papers (see My Favorite Materials).  Cut some printmaking or watercolor paper (see My Favorite Materials) to 8.25"x8.25", and start making stuff.  Work on a few at a time.  Don't plan them out, just let one move inform the next and follow your intuition.

Choose the ones you like, the ones you want to display, and mount them to wood panel.  Choose your hanging mechanism, and hang them in a grid.

Paper on Wood Panel

When I posted about my show at Gallery 47, some of you asked if I could do a demonstration on how to mount works-on-paper, like my collages, on wood panel, like these pieces below:


So now that my Dick Blick order has arrived, including a bunch of birch wood cradled panels, I did a little video to show you how simple this mounting technique is. It is a lot cheaper than framing, too, and gives your piece the kind of heft and object-quality of a piece on panel or canvas. So here is that video:



And here is the panel weighted by a stack of heavy books:

You can, of course, work directly on the birch panels, but I like working on paper and then selectively mounting pieces as there is a demand for showing them. They are easier to store on paper, and I feel more free to play and make a mess. I hope you find this useful!