As promised, I can now say what I've been doing with the piece I'm currently working on!
I decided to leave it outside for a week to become weathered and affected by the elements. For example, being battered by wind, bleached by strong sunlight, or saturated by rain. My rationale was that the majority of people are born perfect, with no scars or bruises, physically and mentally. As you go through life your experiences affect you and you end up with all manner of scars and bruises. When I paint, I strive to create something perfect, so allowing it to become weathered and damaged over a period of time was an analogy to going through life and being affected by your experiences.
I intended to leave it for a week, and then use embroidery as normal, possibly as a means of repair. Unfortunately, there has been no extreme weather at all during the past week, so doing this seems to have had no effect on the painting. One day I came home to find it had been knocked over and slightly soaked during an afternoon of wind and rain, but this didn't really alter the piece permanently. I think this is one of the only times I've ever wished for bad weather.
Because of this, I'm going to leave the work out for longer. Unfortunately I cannot say how long I will need to do this for as I'm entirely dependent on the weather. I think I just need to be patient and hope that there's a storm soon.
In the meantime I've got a few other things to work on, including two new commissions. Hopefully I'll see some results with this piece soon. Today I will also be sending off my residency application to Titanik gallery in Turku!
Hi Tamsin, I did a similar thing with a piece of work many years ago; it was a piece of primed board with a coloured ground on it. I left it in my garden for months and the resulting marks were very ethereal, a bit like the tiny fossils you see in stone. It warped badly but I have kept if for future reference and plan another series of works over 12 months. Good luck with yours! Sue. www.suegough.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThat's good to know! Unfortunately I'm very impatient so I'm considering taking matters into my own hands today, and then hopefully having a new piece that will be affected naturally when the weather gets a bit worse. The rain did get the canvas a bit dirty, which is great, but that's all that's happened in all this time!
ReplyDelete