The paper I used today was very heavy, 246 pounds to be exact. [Note: this is not the weight of a single sheet, but rather the weight of 500 sheets, or a ream of paper.] I like the weight because the paper won’t buckle significantly if I soak it with water and, I can incise […]
Thanks to Sally (@ArtQuartet) for telling me about the work of Simon Hantaï. He folded his canvases before he painted them. “In 1960, Hantaï developed his technique of “pliage” (folding): the canvas is folded and scrunched, then doused with colour, and unfolded, leaving apparent blank sections of the canvas interrupted by vibrant splashes of colour.” (1) […]
I blotted some transparent earth colors on a wet sheet of watercolor paper. I had previously folded and creased the paper in different places. I then drew several sets of partial circles. The arcs were actually scratches made by a divider, a compass-like device with two sharp points, instead of steel point and a pencil point. I made […]
Today’s experiment is another palimpsest, although the underlying art was just a light pencil drawing. I was trying to draw my granddaughter and grandson. In previous studies, I creased the whole length and width of the paper. Today I didn’t crease the paper all the way across. I preserved the posture of brother and sister and used […]
I came across some unfinished drawings made by my granddaughter, in scouring my stash for paper. I began my folding process and used some watercolor crayons to mark the creases. I didn’t have much of an idea about how to treat the original sketch, so I filled in the boxes, made by the intersecting lines, […]
I got the idea for the composition below from Paul Klee’s Quarry, 1945, in a round-about way. I had Klee in mind when I folded and scored the paper first, in columns, then in irregular rows. Then I thumbed through one of my books of Klee’s paintings and found Quarry. I couldn’t quite get the […]
I decided to try painting on a black surface. My friend Nina of methodtwomadness.wordpress.com gave me the idea with her wonderful light-on-dark sketches. I have had this pad of black paper for ages. Once in a while I try a sketch or two, but for the most part, this black pad has been lying dormant. […]
The study below is in position #3 of my crumpled-paper grid. We’re starting to round the corner and start onto the second row. Even though this piece is directly adjacent to the artwork in Grid Position No. 2, it has a different palette and a different feel. The charcoal lines mark the ridges of the rumpled paper, giving […]
I hate to throw away paper. With my recently-developed technique of folding, spindling and mutilating paper (a behavior I had to learn since this conduct was largely prohibited in the 1970s). I am trotting out my marred paper for this treatment. It is working out quite well. I painted the abstract below on previously-folded paper I […]
Grid #2 pictured below is the second entry in The Grid, moving counter clockwise from the upper left. Grid #1 was featured yesterday. Here is the Grid #2 in context of the entire set of 11.
