This week I have been mainly painting the sea. I've also been experimenting more with texture and edges.
I came across an old piece of work that I hadn't ever finished, I had clearly tried....and failed. It was interesting though because it was pastel and I think oil or oil bar on top of a very heavyweight piece of watercolour paper, I found the edges particularly nice, and it got me thinking about applying primer onto textured paper or card in a much thinner layer than usual. The idea being to let the texture of the paper do some of the work of the drawing for me (not that I'm lazy or anything....) or for the paper to become a more active part of the image. I know that sounds a bit mental, and I can't properly explain what I mean (I have spent the last half an hour trying!) so hopefully the images will explain for me!
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| the beach |
I think this one worked OK, although perhaps the darker top edge is a bit distracting? It got me thinking about edges again and how much I like the deckled edge that you get with handmade paper. Coincidentally, I have rather a lot of handmade paper hanging around, left over from a time when I was a little obsessed with it! Anyway, I did these two, on paper made from the yellow pages.
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| durdle dor, dorset |
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| worthing, west sussex |
I like the way that the images start to look like found artifacts, partly that's the colours I've used, and partly it is the raw edges. these are much smaller than my usual stuff and they were much quicker. I don't know that they are entirely finished, and I definitely haven't finished experimenting with the handmade paper! I need to find a good way to frame them now...
