On a lot of this painting, I used a brayer. . . a set of hard rubber printing brayers that have paint and medium crusted on them. . . so that when I ran it over the canvas, the paint would only be deposited on the peaks, the high points, of the texture. It was while I was working on this painting that I read the quote in Nita Leland's book about different colors every inch. There really isn't a solid one-color section in this painting. I think I'm getting back in the swing of painting, loosening up, having a lot of fun here. Still very geometric, a remnant of making all those later collages where I was really working with squares and rectangles.
Friday night and yesterday, my art rep teamed up with a local gallery and showed not only my paintings, but tons of other original art work: large, small, oil, acrylic, on canvas, on paper. Wonderful art to look at. Tons of invitations, a respectable RSVP response, and very light traffic. It is so rude, I think, to not show up when you've said you would. The gallery owner was a bit disheartened. The art rep said it was just the way things are going right now. It's hard to sell art at any time, but during difficult economic periods, you have to be a real optimist to continue in that line of work. I feel like the gallery owner and I made contact, which could prove valuable if and when people want to buy art again.
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4 comments:
Hi Mary,
Just a technique question from someone who has done very little painting: are your brayers crusted like that on purpose? Do you simply not clean them after use so that some texture will build up on them? It sounds like they then sort of become rolling stamps.
Diane
Diane: Yes, that's exactly right. Out of forgetfulness or laziness or whatever, I have ended up with these wonderful "rolling stamps" completely random-patterned and changing every time I use them. I even have some pizza dough rollers and other kitchen utensils that look like brayers, that I bought at garage sales, so I don't feel too bad about messing them up. Oh, I could use a rolling pin, too. . . wow, never thought of that. I'm very sorry to learn that your mother passed away. I hope you are doing as well as can be expected. Thanks for visiting my blog.
I think I'll try letting my brayers build a "crust" as well - since I love texture sounds like a great way to get some for free. I really like the effect it gave you in this piece. I think solid colors are boring also...
Thank you for the comment, Bob. Just another little bit of happy coincidence. I encourage you to try it. Use a little extra heavy gesso too. That really builds up the texture. Any extra paint or gesso that is left on the roller I apply to small pieces of foamcore and create smaller art work. The kitchen utensils are put to better use in my studio than in my kitchen, I can assure you. And, Bob, I must add, your art seems to have gone in a new direction. . . I am crazy about the two new paintings you have put on your blog. Did you say that you use spackling compound? I tried that for a while, but it all flaked off, what a disaster. Do you do something to the spackling to make it adhere, or do you use it on a solid substrate?
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