Friday, September 18, 2009

RESUSCITATION!




I have been busy preparing for my workshop in Minneapolis in a few weeks, holding the first session of a new Critique Group which will meet monthly, taking care of office stuff and today I had to do some holiday cooking. My baking skills have hit rock bottom. I made a box cake that turned out positively dreadful. Dump the powder into a bowl, add eggs and water, beat the living daylights out of it for 4 minutes, pour in greased pan and bake. How hard is that? Apparently, harder than I thought.
I couldn't stand being away from art making, so in between these boring chores, I decided to start a new painting. I wanted to explore painting on aluminum foil a little more. This is the first stage. I cut a piece of foil larger than the old painting I am going to cover over. Then, spread heavy acrylic gel over the painting and place the foil on top. I took a dull pencil and drew my image into the foil making sure not to tear it. Then I took a few rubber stamps and textured the background and the hair. I overlapped the patterns a little for interest. The acrylic gel creates a cushion so you can incise a line or pattern in the foil. Then I spread some GAC200 over the foil. It dries clear. I squirted some over the image and then used a foam roller to even it out and spread it around. This particular acrylic product is used for better adhesion of acrylic to a non porous surface. I haven't used this before so it will be interesting to see how this works.

This is the best I could photograph this stage of the painting process. The color is just reflections from surrounding objects and me standing in front of it taking the photo. Reflective surfaces require more technical knowledge and equipment than I possess. I am including a few details so you can see the idea. If you have never included foil in a painting, give it a try. The effect is exciting. Mary Todd Beam has a few techniques in her first book "Your Creative Self" and Creative Catalyst Productions has a DVD by Jacqueline Sullivan called Acrylics: Textures, Layers and Metallics.

5 comments:

Cindi said...

to heck with the cake..LOL this is wonderful.. i think you have my missing creative gene.. could i have a little bit back??? nothing is safe in your house!!!! i love it!! keep on having fun.. thanks for sharing!!

jgr said...

This is so cool! You have inspired me to try it.

Billie Crain said...

Now this is something really new to me. I love experimenting on different surfaces but foil never entered my mind. I just saw your current post and the results are wonderful! How original!

p.s. Sorry about that cake.:(

Anonymous said...

this is such an interesting process. i'm curious to try it..what is GAC200.. i have watched your blog for a few weeks and think it's so fun. i have a couple of students who love your kind of work so we're going to roll up our sleeves and dig in..thanks for all the info..many regards, kay

Myrna Wacknov said...

Glad everyone is interested in trying this idea. I do not know what GAC 200 stands for but it is an acrylic that looks like mat medium, dries clear and is used on non porous surfaces to get the acrylic to stick. Send me any results you do on foil.

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