22 October 2009

Recycled Paint


Canvas in process of being covered with 'Recycled Paint'

... at times I am inspired to do a little painting with the recycled paint, just using the spatula and selected colors.

Bunch of canvasses and panels prepped with 'Recycled Paint' set out to dry.

Garlic Painting done on background prepped with 'Recycled Paint'

Recycled Paint being mixed on the palette with Spatula.

Closeup detail of textures which are achieved by using 'Recycled Paint'
on a canvas panel

Prepared "Recycled Paint" Canvasses ... ready to go!

I have been working with a new technique of recycling paint. Having never liked to throw out older [off] paint, which is just beginning to become unusable, but still fairly soft, I started scraping it onto the canvasses with a large spatula. I call it Recycling Paint. Very eco friendly! Then leave it to dry out completely and sand it back (being careful not to sand through the canvas, to give a wonderful effect to the backgrounds of my paintings. This method gives a deep aged heavy background. I don't want to use this for all my paintings, but have liked the effect it gives to some, as with the one below of Russian Garlic. Best thing about this method is that I don't have to waste paint any more.

I've painted a few larger paintings by using this method ... which I've called my "Recycled Paintings". I'll post some photos of these paintings on the blog some time down the track. They are more abstract, and I use the spatula for these as well, but have introduced figures.

The photo above is of the last lot of canvasses I prepared using the Recycled Paint method. By mixing the colors selectively straight from the palette onto the canvas, I get fabulous colors, no matter that they don't always remain those colors, it's great fun and good exercise. The top photo is a close-up of a prepped canvas using recycled paint, to show you the effect.

1 comment:

Stephen Magsig said...

Wendy, Thank you for sharing this information. I am sure many artists will look into this. Love your work in it's many forms. Found your site from a comment on Rene Plein Air, what a great time to be an artist, being able to connect with art and artists from all over the world. Best, Stephen