Tools and Material Use

Using tools as additive and subtractive methods of painting. A continuation of my recent blog post Patterns on Patterns.

Above is the the wire mesh grid that I used to "paint" with, it is laying down on a practice paper and has layers of dry paint on it.

Clean Wire Mesh Grid - it is actually the stuff sculpture artists purchase to made an armature.The product name is Amaco WireForm. It can be purchased at Dick Blick Art.

Ok so I was enjoying photographing the grid.

Carpet pad with plywood behind.

Carpet grid stuff is the squishy sticky stuff Home Depot sells that people use under carpets to keep them in place. I use the stuff attached to a 1/2 in plywood board and print with it using acrylic or oil paint. Messy and almost like weightlifting class.

Above is an image of the carpet pad covered plywood - about 60 x 30 inches and weighs at least 15 pounds - each time I paint with this tool it gets heavier.

Here is a detail of the two techniques applied in my art. The yellow gold is the carpet pad material printed and the deep purple is the wire mesh material printed. The little square shapes you see are collage pieces of paper on my panel.

Another detail - this time with canvas collage on the panel. Here you can begin to see reductive use of the wire mesh and additive use of the carpet pad.

This detail includes a piece of an old painting cut up that had a lot of texture on it - the ridges that you can see here. The bottom curved bit is a portion of a coaster. The visible white grid is reductive - because the paint application shows were the wire mesh takes paint off of my roller that is then used on the panel.

Above is the additive method of using the wire mesh grid. I paint through the wire mesh by laying it on the panel and applying the paint over the wire mesh. Once I remove the wire mesh the paint ridges remain.