Butterfly Mirror

This is a mix of media on glass; acrylic, oil, epoxy resin, polystyrene, gold, pigment, glitter and gem stones.

The plan was to represent escape using the butterfly shape, dividing the picture into two approximate zones, one of high chromanance to the top left and one of greys to the lower right. The work was started with heavy body acrylic on a mirror, mainly phthalo blue, phthalo green and dioxazine violet. A butterfly mask was cut and this was sponged over to create butterfly positives and negatives. A plain section was covered, allowing the mirror to shine through. PVA glue was used to stick glitters onto the picture, often using masks to limit the area. Glue was mixed with acrylic to make a frosted glass appearance in the lower right area.

After that, oil paint was applied to accentuate details, some veins on the butterfly wings, and some sky clouds. The same pigments were used. 24kt gold leaf was applied using an acetate mask and PVA glue. Parts of the acrylic were rubbed away to reveal scar shapes in the glass behind, also helping to convey the escape motif.

Once touch dry, a border was cut for the butterfly mirror area in foam board. This was painted in acrylic and covered in dusty gold pigment before being stuck to the mirror and carefully sealed to prevent leaks. Then liquid epoxy resin was poured into the whole area of the mirror's recess and pigments danced into the plastic lake. These were painted and spread to create deep areas of colour, like explosions of violet frozen in transparent ice. Gold pigment was sprinkled into the liquid to create a gold fur like the dust of a moths wing caught in disturbed air.

When the plastic was set, the two gemstones were added; amethyst and emerald.

Despite the complex mix of media, much of this artwork was improvised. The initial idea of escape using a butterfly motif was all I began with. With so many options and media, a detailed plan would have been unwieldy, and indeed undesirable. Sometimes it is best to feel your way, create with panache and aim for beauty. As a result I've created something different from my usual style, but not unique. This is one of a small number of "resin" pictures and I plan on making more artworks like this in 2010.

Plaster 3

Casting again today. I haven't been doing much work over the past few days, and perhaps this doldrum time of the year is for just that. It is also a time for planning.

Today's plaster experiments used thin packing foam, I think 2mm. No pencil would trace onto it so I placed the drawing underneath and could just see enough of the lines through the foam to enable me to cut out the holes I'd eventually fill. The results were not very even. It's just not possible to "sandwich" a mould without giving the excess plaster somewhere to flow. If it flows down, which it seems to want to, it makes huge holes in the casts.

Lots more to try. My next plan might be to go right back to the earliest solution, to the Moons and Keyholes, and carving. I'll decide later.

I aim to enter this painting into the John Moore's competition so I'll begin painting it in January. That means I'll have to complete my casting soon, as well as paint a study. It's not a large picture, fortunately.

Seed to field to seed

Inspired by John Salmon I've decided to make a Christmas present of some music to my blog readers to celebrate my new found blog friends. Here is a track from The Twelve Seasons called Seed To Field To Seed, which tries to evoke growth and rebirth, the passing of the seasons in a country field.

For a time you can download the track here:
R13A-T11-MarkSheeky-SeedToFieldToSeed.mp3. I hope you like it.

I wanted the melody to grow like cells, and so was partly inspired by the imagery of cellular automata. When I listen to this I see frost over a grassy field, thawing in the golden sun, releasing seeds that growing into new green grass, eventually frosting over again, slowly as a second winter approaches at the end.

Moon

The underpainting to this one is now finished, almost all of it is mars black and titanium white, with some naples yellow deep for the orangey parts. The final colours will be subtle violets.

Sunday

A busy day today. First I read a quick bit of philosophy, which is useful for any artist! Then I decided to be more careful about the quality of different jobs and concentrate on one thing, allocating time strictly to maximise efficiency. I found the foamboard positives and painted one in acrylic then applied gold dust before sticking it to a prepared surface. I'll post a picture of this mixed media artwork on my blog on Christmas day.

The second Gethsemane study is done too, and shown below. This picture is about a moment of choice. Last year I thought that a relationship with art and a woman at the same time was impossible. I decided to paint this romanticised dichotomy. What is the story of Christ in Gethsemane but an allegory about a single moment realisation? The painting ends positively though, with love.


The first draft was rather bare so I added some trees. There are a few things to resolve; whether the trees should be deep red or turquoise like the sky (note; this is an underpainting study, not the final colours). The lake reflection needs to be darker too, but on the whole I'm satisfied enough not to paint a third study. When dry I'll add more to this. It's important that the study is as close as possible to the desired underpainting.

In the afternoon I began a dark underpainting to a small picture about feeling distant from someone who was once close. The picture began with a sketch, then a plasticine model of the plant object, lit from above. A night photograph was located and composed.

The "dropped" photograph showing a harmony relationship between plant and moon was necessary to reinforce the meaning. The vanishing points for the photo were based on the background. Clouds were added to the sky to break up the wide flatness. When finished the colours here will be very subtle purples and oranges. This picture is smaller than the study above.

Plaster 2

Plaster 2

The second lot of casting for the "Transmittance of Pity" painting didn't work! The results were better than before however. There were two main problems. Firstly I sandwiched the plaster between two sheets of plastic, one flexible one solid. The flexible one was easy to peel off, but the solid one tended to stick to the plaster, making it hard to separate without cracking. Secondly the card parts of the foamboard absorbed the water in the plaster, sticking it to the edges. I could try to waterproof the card, or put some vaseline on it (thanks Kathy!). A new moulding material would be useful though, or I could try to make a mould from the positives I've already cut. I have some latex for that.

This test was better than the others though. The surface was level and very smooth, there were no raised edges or lumps. The thickness was even and consistent, the air bubbles inconsequential. Generally it was a good test, and one or two of the more robust shapes were good enough to use. The difficult "mirror", the important and most difficult curly part of the painting will have to be recast though.

Wax

I had my first play with encaustic wax painting last night. I had the idea of folding blobs of wax in the paper and ironing it while it was sealed to create mirror images. Most of the nice vein effect comes from unpeeling the wet wax. I'm sure the same effect could be achieved in paint to create blobs that could seed automatism, as in Decalcomania, Eclaboussure, Fumage etc.

I'm painting the second colour study to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane at the moment and wrote a bouncy Christmas rock song yesterday while doing it called Christmas in the Sun, because the news is full of snow and I began to think of Christmas in Australia, naturally! Here are the words:

Oh what will you play, Kevin?
Oh what will you do when you awake?
Richard's gone away,
wonder if you'll see him.
When you wake we'll fly away,

and we'll have Christmas in the sun.
Christmas by the water.
Christmas in the sun
on a sandy beach.
We'll have Christmas in the sun
You and everybody
will be having fun!
'till the day is done!
Christmas in the sun,
this year.

Oh when shall we go, Kevin?
Oh when will you wake, to go?
Richard's gone away,
do you want to see him?
Open up your eyes for me

and we'll have Christmas in the sun.
Christmas by the water.
Christmas in the sun
on a sandy beach.
We'll have Christmas in the sun
You and everybody
will be having fun!
'till the day is done!
Christmas in the sun,
this year.

Oh what will you say, Kevin?
Cry my tears of joy when you awake?
Richard's gone away
are you off to see him?
When your morning comes we'll fly

and we'll have Christmas in the sun.
Christmas by the water.
Christmas in the sun
on a sandy beach.
We'll have Christmas in the sun
You and everybody
will be having fun!
'till the day is done!
Christmas in the sun,
this year.

The end. In other news my plaster is still rather damp and cold (it was minus five degrees here last night!) and so I'll leave it a little longer while I paint.

Plaster

A restful day but I have done a bit of casting. I've tried many way to obtain a smooth accurate relief including pouring plaster onto the painting surface, and cutting or carving images from solid blocks. This time I wanted to cut the shapes from foamboard and cast the plaster in the holes.

The first results were not promising, there were large air bubbles, and keeping the surface flat and even proved problematical. The process was also very messy. It's naturally difficult to calculate the volume of plaster needed for pouring into a mould, so it overspilled.

I've just cast a second set, this time casting a mirror image, so the visible part will be the underside which is always better looking. The foamboard, though excellent to mark and cut, does bend and deform easily and it is difficult to demould the shapes. The card is sensitive to water so after just one cast the moulds are already showing signs of deterioration.

When making the Keyholes picture I concluded that the best system was so cast a solid block and carve, but that makes for a heavy picture, and it's not easy to guarantee a strong bond between the plaster and the wood panel surface. A picture should ideally withstand being dropped. I like to test every new process to destruction!

It's all a lot of work. At the moment I'm more obsessed with perfecting the process, less so with the artistry. I might not use many of the relief parts I'm casting because impressive as they look, they might not increase the verisimilitude of the painting. It's good to gain the practical knowledge and skills though.