I spent a wonderful three days with a group of calligraphers and artists from the Eastern Cape. Of those three days, two were devoted to creating Decorative Backgrounds.
When Sue Williams of the Eastern Cape Calligraphers approached me during the Carl Rohrs workshops in Cape Town last July with the proposal that I consider facilitating a workshop on decorative backgrounds I was both flattered and highly trepidatious. And so it was, that I found myself in Port Elizabeth on the first weekend of November 2009 working with the most welcoming group of artists. It is not for nothing that PE is generally reputed to be the “Friendly City”.
I have spent many years experimenting with various mediums on all sorts of substraits and the opportunity to pass on some of this hard won knowledge was too good to miss. But how to pack all this into two days – that was the challenge.
To this end, the focus of the workshop was to learn and experiment with new mediums, or for those already familiar with them, to use them in a different way and not to be too precious about the end results! The finer points of design, layout, composition and lettering techniques would be saved for another day.
I am always mindful of the fact that it is a scary thing for students to push boundaries in a group forum. We naturally want to be “the best” which requires that we remain within our own comfort zones. To this I say no! First and foremost, have fun – enjoy the process of experimentation. If what you are doing doesn’t work, figure out why. For me, there is no wrong or right way, but there are “good” ways or for want of a better word “rules”. Technical competence comes when you are able to recognise and correct your own miss-takes. Thereafter, break the rules with impunity!
Audrey - Work in Progress
Audrey’s stretched canvas has been washed with several layers of blue acrylic paint mixed with acrylic matt medium (approx 50:50) . Each layer must be allowed to dry before applying the next coat of paint, lettering or collage item. The original intention was to collage the picture of the peacock onto the canvas, but she was persuaded to paint it instead.
Brenda - work in progress
Brenda adds skeleton letters to her canvas, using copperplate nib and FW White Acrylic ink
Erin - work in progress
Laying down elements onto the canvas. ATP Gel Medium was applied to the canvas as well as the back of the elements being pasted down. Once in place the top surface is wetted with medium and roller applied to the surface to push out air bubbles and to secure paper to the canvas substrait. (Pads of newspaper were inserted beneath the stretched canvas to offer a resistent surface for the roller.)
Hansa - work in progress
Soft washes of magenta, blue and ochre applied in successive layers interspersed with layers of white skeleton lettering. See top right corner where overlapping layers of letters start to push back some of the blue tones. In the centre of the circle, Hansa applied a crumpled sheet of fine mulberry tissue (using Acrylic Medium as the glueing agent) for added textural interest.
Janine - work in progress
Janine’s fingers are white from applying dilute gesso to her work. She found some of the lettering too dominant. The letters were pushed back by applying gesso to the canvas with a wet brush. She then wiped the excess off with a soft cloth so that the underlying layers remain visible, but subtley so. Here she lays down skeleton letters using monoline nib and while acrylic ink in order to create more textural interest.
Linda - work in progress
Almost at the finished stage is this piece. Linda adds some “gold” leaf to her work.
Myrtle - work in progress
This close-up shows the technique of pulling paint off the canvas. Diluted gesso has been applied to the canvas, and before it was allowed to dry, Myrtle wrote into the wet medium with a #16 colour shaper . You could use an unloaded automatic pen, hard brush, reed pen, twig etc for similar effect. Just make sure you wash nibs thoroughly after pulling through the wet medium.
Ria - work in progress
Ria using a heart template shape to define a border which will contain some of her text. You will see in the final picture, this idea was lost beneath successive applications of paint etc. Bottom right hand corner of the picture shows red negative pattern created by placing a piece of lace onto the canvas and rolling undiluted acrylic paint over the lace with a sponge roller. Pattern on the right hand side of the canvas was achieved with stamps.
Sue - work in progress
An intricate background consisting of layered colours and lettering. The whole giving the illusion of worn stone or distressed marble . the insert on this picture indicates what the next step will be, when Sue starts to plan the design and juggle with the final positioning prior to pasting up the four celtic images.
Sharon
*******************
The images which follow show the end results of two days hard labour!
Audery
Brenda
Erin
Hansa
Janine
Linda
Myrtle
Ria
Sue
Sharon
*******************************
