Measuring up

Here's a side on view of my latest painting which has deep texture from emulsion and gloss 'waved' across the board with an old car windscreen scraper.

I went to measure up space at the lovely Fisherton Mill Gallery today and found I had more space than I thought so will be able to get some more large pieces in there for the exhibition. Bad news is that transporting them all is becoming a bit of a problem!

Good news is that I should have room for some of the more recent works including this one if I get it finished. This detail is from bottom centre.

I want to get some collage on this around the edges.

Getting the trowel out

This is the start of an idea for wrapping the painting with edges that have a 'live' feel. In this case I used papier mache, mixed up until close to pizza dough consistency, and then using a mortar trowel, laid on to an mdf base board fixed to the back of the painting.

When dry on the surface I cut out with sharp knife and reversed it onto the painting, glued and nailed in place.

(It reminds me of something carved out of stone and definitely one to get your hands on!)

The surplus mdf board was then cut away to leave a very sharply defined edge that shrank and twisted as the drying continued.

I finished it with some varnish to bring out the colours hidden in the pulp.

The edge is really sharp now it is completely dry.

Hands-on and textures

This is bottom left quarter from 'Riders on the Storm'. I finished this with burnishing on some black poster paint (rubbed in with a thick glove until it almost shines.) The colour creeping through is from pieces of crushed petal, and the white is emulsion lightly brushed in prior to applying a soft sheen varnish. I also kept the canvas slightly loose on this one.

Frames and Edges

I only started framing and finishing the edges of paintings a little while ago, as some needed a frame in order to hang properly.

Wood lends itself to some fun treatment as shown on this close up, can become part of the painting.

Surf's up...

Here's a detail from one of the two surf's up pieces. This one I made with a stick on frame from recycled wooden window blind and is very thin, and so I used velcro on the back to keep it as flush to the wall as possible. I enhanced the colour on this image, and of course it is upside down!

another close up.

Another clip from an early work, which shows use of starch, tin foil and the bleach which has burnt lines into the paint under the bright red lines on the lower right.

Close up

I particularly like the way this face looms out from behind the black gloss marbling, on a piece from 1970.

Catalogue of work

The majority of work from 1969-2010 is shown here.