[ Experiment ] Texture

Thursday, August 23, 2012

I've been swamped with commissions the past week, but yesterday I managed to squeeze in this beauty.  I've been working on it over the past month, just a few minutes here or there, building layers and experimenting with texture.

Yesterday, I finished with the final touches, and fell in love.


It's painted on a 24" x 24" birch panel.  I have a love/hate relationship with wood panels, having worked exclusively on them my senior year of college.  I (and sometimes with the help of my dad) build all of my wood panels.  This process can be a pain in the butt (if I'm being real) - not quite the simplicity of just unwrapping a brand new shipment of canvas.  But by being involved in the creation of this piece, from step one, I've also added a certain level of personal investment to the work.


Painting on a hard surface also allows for relatively uninhibited experimentation with mediums and texture.  When working on canvas, such a flexible and fragile material, I have to be much more conscious of my technique, and not building the paint up too much for fear of cracking in the future. The wood is much more forgiving that way.

I'll be listing this piece in my shop within the next week, but if interested, you can contact me directly at amaryllistruth [ @ ] gmail.com

Well, I think after this piece, I just might have to make a quick trip to Lowe's and build a few more panels. I forgot how much fun it could be!







5 thoughts:

  1. Beautiful! I've never painted on a wood panel before, but the effect is gorgeous. I want to build my own canvases, but I definitely need something better than the sad excuse for the saw that I currently have. My husband always jokes and says I look like Bob the Builder when he sees me wandering around with a hammer anyway!

    I'd love to see the process of the creation of the wood panels!

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  2. Thank you!

    For canvases, you can buy the stretchers pre-made, so then its just a matter of hammering/gluing/stapling them together, and stretching/stapling the canvas.

    For wood panels, I have Lowe's, or wherever I'm purchasing the sheets of wood, cut them down to size for me (they do that for free!) Then it's just a matter of mitering and gluing/nailing the back pieces to cradle the wood. (If all that makes sense)

    Good luck!

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  3. (But maybe I will do a step-by-step diy.) Good idea!

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  4. Allie....I love this piece. It's similar to your others in it's ethereal feel but the textures and rawness [is that a word?] are wonderful.

    I have been building my own supports for years. Sometimes I have the panels cut for me like you do. Sometimes I use rescued wood from wherever I can get it and cut it down myself. I tend to be rough with the support when I paint so canvas isn't usually the best option. I have a stack of canvases wasting away in the corner of my studio that I use when I'm in a gentle state of mind. :)

    Keep up the good work and the posts. It inspires me to post more.
    Denton

    ReplyDelete
  5. Allie, thanks! I usually just buy canvases for 40% off, but I know that's not very economical anyway. I'll try those pre-made stretchers and then hopefully learn to make the canvases by myself someday. I'm definitely going to try the wood panels sometime! :)

    ReplyDelete

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