. . . spent hours playing

in my studio/basement yesterday. A few weeks ago when I cleared a path from the basement door to the inner workings of electrical, furnace/AC systems, etc., I retrieved from under piles of junk some small square pieces of MDF board and wood left over from some long-ago project. I coated them with gesso and they sat next to a "real" painting I had started. I have been using pieces of wax paper for a pallette, as well as for a kind of monoprinting technique. The patterns and colors left on these pieces of wax paper were amazing.


In true "what if I. . ." style, I applied some matte gel to the surface of the gessoed board; then I placed the paint-splattered side of one wax paper pallette onto the board and rubbed with my hand and a brayer. Some of the paint from the pallette was transferring to the board; I shot the whole thing with a hair dryer on high. All the paint on the pallette then transferred onto the gessoed board. Then I sanded with my little mouse sander, and the result is the piece above. Nothing added. . . just a wax paper transfer.






Thus encouraged, I tried another "technique", if that's what you want to call it. I used another piece of painted wax paper and another gessoed board. After I applied matte medium to the board, I laid the wax paper, interesting side up, on the board. I heated the whole thing with a heat gun until the wax and paint and medium kind of all fused together, leaving a crinkly texture in some places where the paint blistered. When that cooled a bit, I sanded it smooth. This wax paper had paint on both sides, and when I sanded, some of the top paint came off, but the bottom paint had fused to the gessoed board. I added a couple of details (black squares and lines), then covered the whole thing in encaustic medium.


And, if that wasn't enough play time, I also created three stamps. . . I cut 2 x 2" inch squares out of cork board, corrugated carboard, and heavy mat board, four each. I glued these to pieces of thick styrofoam that had been used as packaging material. I used a part of the corrugated cardboard stamp on the picture above, in the top right corner. That's not all the fun I had, either. Perhaps when I perfect this other monoprint technique, I will show you the results. Creativity was flowing around here yesterday. Hope it keeps up.