Paintings & Posters
 Forces
of the Moon - Poster |
"Kindred Spirits" - Poster |
The Blessing of DreamsLet there be Healing |
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Watercolor, 15" x 22" "CELEBRATIONS" Mixed Media on Stretched Canvas, 26" x 44" |
THE TEXTURES OF PAINTINGS
I am frequently asked about my canvases, about the textures and how they are produced. This is how I create them.
I sought for a number of years to create an interesting texture. Although painting has been a passion for me since the 1950’s I found simple, primed canvas to be a bit boring. Traditionally canvas is stretched and then sized as it is called. In times past this was done with rabbit skin glue. This gave way to gesso which is ground titanium oxide suspended in polymer acrylic. If paint is applied to raw canvas it tends to spread or wick into the fibers. Sizing prevents this.
Artists have used various elements to create texture. Marble dust is one thing commonly in use. Sand is another, and commercially prepared gessoes are available that contain these compounds. These did not provide what I desired. For a time I mixed various types of clays with various types of glues and would then trowel them upon the canvas. This produced some fascinating textures. The clay would shrink and crackle resembling the surface of a dry earthen tank. This was a pleasing surface, yet still not the one I was looking for.
One day it occurred to me that the sand should be applied to gesso and not mixed into it. This is what I have settled with, at least up to now. The Llano River runs in front of my Texas studio. The bed of this river is rich in assorted minerals which include mica, schist, limestone, granite, quartzite, and traces of gold, silver, and topaz. I gather this sand by the bucketful, let it dry, and sieve it through different meshes. I sort it into containers of fine, course, and very course particles.
Utrecht Art Company manufactures a gesso that is very thick, so thick that it will not pour. To the surface of a stretched canvas I apply a liberal amount of this material, working hastily to stay ahead of its drying, and sometimes misting the gesso with a spray bottle to keep it wet. Then I cover the entire surface with the varied textures of sand. This is a very generous application about a half-inch in depth. I cover this with a thin sheet of plastic and begin pressing the sand into the gesso, rubbing it with my hands back and forth. The canvas is then tilted to allow the loose sand to fall off and is carefully set aside to dry, which might require a full day.
The dry canvas is brushed in the four directions with a stainless steel wire brush until practically every particle that will leave has left. I then have one of the most beautiful and difficult surfaces to paint upon that there could possibly be, with glittering and sparkling fragments of rich minerals. It is very rough and very rough on brushes.
Of course, the process continues. Colors are floated on much like watercolor washes. When these dry, thicker pigments are scumbled and brushed onto the surface. It is a long process, and frequently, I will have several canvases in various stages of progress. This is the reason the dates and times of several paintings may be so close together.
There is an eight by twelve-foot canvas hanging in some bank in Colorado and a seven by nine foot one hanging in Vanessie’s of Santa Fe. It was quite a process applying the sand to these.