Seeing Double!

 I have finally managed to get the Teddy's varnished and framed. There are actually two paintings because I wanted to be able to paint a second following my own instructions to see if they were clear enough. This was a great exercise because it helped me to see the process from a different point of view and to then fill in any missing gaps in my explanations. It also helped me to realise the points where you might all panic thinking this is never going to work so i will hopefully be able to reassure you at these points :)  I am now busy writing my script for the DVD and will then begin the process of editing all the video clips and photos and compiling it all... I think I have a summer long project ahead of me :)

 I thought you might like to see the two versions.... Its a bit like the game 'spot the differences' for although they are both pretty much the same there will always be small changes that make each painting unique. Both are varnished with liquitex satin varnish. I just love the effect it has on the painting as it really seems to enhance the texture of the paper and give the painting a rich glow. The colours are not acurate in these photos but they do give you an idea of the effect the satin varnish creates and the overall effect of the gallery wrap.

The first painting I have left as a bare gallery wrap. I've simply then added two D rings to the two sides and attached some wire to them.

The second I have put in a floater frame. The canvas then sits inside this frame with the sides still partially visible.

 I have my next two paintings already drawn on the watercolour paper and stretched onto boards ready to paint. Hopefully I'll feel up to beginning one of them this week.

Ona

Going larger with gallery wraps!

Hi everyone:)

So you all know I have been working on developing further the gallery wrapped paper idea for watercolours over the last 8 months or so.

In case you are new to this blog here is an example I did this summer mounted in a floater frame and HERE is the link to my post back in October which takes you through my version of the gallery wrap process

Up until now all the ones I have done, like this one, are small ones but I am now gradually trying and developing the technique for bigger gallery wraps. When I did one of the two baby duck gallery wraps which was14 by 14 inch I found that with the constant wetting of the paper (because I glaze) the foam core 'sandwich' had begun to bow a little. It was hardly noticable at this size, but it made me think about what I could do for larger paintings. I would like to get to the point when I can do a 40 by 40 inch gallery wrap. So....

.... this brings me to my current experiment. I have been sensible and not gone too big yet so I have just wrapped a 20 by 20 inch one (half the size of my goal size).

To stop the bowing/ sagging of the foam core I am trying sandwiching 2 layers of foamcore between the paper and stretcher bars. I stuck the first , as usual to the stretchers with double sided tape and then repeated this with the second layer of foamcore stuck to the first one and then wrapped over the combo. My theory is that while my top layer of foam core will still get very wet, the bottom one will stay dryer and support the top one. I like the slightly deeper more gallery style effect that the double layer of foam core gives me. I did a quick wet on wet experiment at this size and then took apart the gallery wrap to look at the foam core underneath. The experiment worked well.

I will have to think of something to paint this size now :) I'm not sure how much painting I'm going to get done this month as I am working on developing some ideas but in the New year I'm definitely going to try a bigger gallery wrap!

Ona