Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Experimenting with Texture, Paint, and Collage



"Paris Eiffel Tower"
Beth S. Macre © 2008

Acrylic Paint on canvas

As an art teacher, I am constantly looking for new projects for my 3rd and 4th year students. Since these students have been with me for 3 and 4 years, they need more and more challenging projects each year. Some of my students really love a challenge and I really enjoy seeing what they come up with. The latest challenge that we all took on together, was to create a map relief textured painting. They could choose a map of any place, pick out the interesting lines and shapes to create an abstract or semi-abstract design. The only other requirements were that they should use a gel molding paste to create textured relief parts. I told them they could add pieces of fabric, wire, paper, or other items if they wished to create a collage effect. I also showed them a few ways to add texture to the molding paste to create different effects. Some of which I included in my "Eiffel Tower Map of Paris" piece shown here.



When I applied the molding paste, I laid a piece of wire mesh on top of the wet paste and pressed it on, using a pallette knife, then removed the wire mesh, leaving the texture. You can see a close up of the textures in the 2nd and 3rd photos here. The textures show up after they are painted with layers of paint of a variety of colors. To see it larger, click on the image.



For my painting I used a map of Paris, from my trip last summer. I also collaged a cut out photo that I took of the Eiffel Tower and printed in grayscale, then painted around the edges and some on top of the paper.

This was one of those projects that I really had fun with and plan to do more using the molding gel. I really love the effects that you can create with the textures. One of my goals for 2009 is to do more of this type of painting.

Tomorrow I will be doing some studio cleaning and thinking about the rest of those goals for 2009.

Hope you have a happy and safe New Year!
~Beth~

5 comments:

  1. Hi Beth,
    love this Collage piece,
    Happy New Year

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  2. I enjoyed reading about the process as much as viewing the piece.

    Best wishes for the new year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Beth, I just noticed that you became a follow of my blog. I am honored. I just loved my art teacher when I was in school.

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  4. Welcome to the world of mixed media, Beth! Great piece! I look forward to seeing more. I'm sure your students will enjoy this technique.

    Happy New Year!

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  5. Hi Beth...wow!! this piece is amazing...and you used one of my favorite things in it...the Eiffel Tower....oh what magic...the colours and texture are amazing!!!!

    Hope you have a wonderful New Year!!!

    Hugs
    Diana

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you! Thanks for stopping by!
~Beth

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