Painting 101: Creating a distressed background — part three

The work progresses with my usual slow steadiness, methodically analyzing a variety of possibilities and after careful consideration, cautiously progressing to stage three. The canvases have started to reveal a direction in which each one desires to be taken and what is to happen next. From this point on, no canvas will receive the same treatment, especially the 16 x 16 inch canvas, since it saw only one new addition, a single tree. An image I immediately fell in love with and when one considers some of the concepts that were being previously contemplated, this illustration of a tree was perfect for a pastoral scene. The use of this print also would mean the canvases fate was being sealed early on and any additional layers of newsprint for a deeper distressed look was no longer possible.

The elements that are retained so far help bring together the direction this painting is heading, not only because of the solitary tree, but also because of the title ‘Pepper Spray Times’ and the word that has been mostly sanded down, but still visible ‘Community’. The placement of these three elements has been most deliberate, allowing for what is to be painted and where to balance out the composition, considering the painting when finished will be placed behind an old wooden window frame.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas, 16 x 16” (40.64 x 40.64 cm)

Stage 3, layer five of newsprint after sanding

The idea of combining an image with a window frame is nothing new. When visiting Santa Cruz, we stopped in at a local gallery where we saw a photographer using an old window frames to place his photographic images onto the glass of a distressed window. However I did not care for the image to be placed upon the glass, rather I would want it to be behind and not even against the glass, rather give the illusion of looking to the outside onto something of interest.

My first inclination had been to create an abstract but what can a derelict window have in common with an abstract? The two seemed foreign, considering what I desired to visually express. In the end I settled on the idea of a pastoral scene with a songbird resting on a branch, especially after finding a wooden window frame, which had all the right qualities and reflected the passages of time.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas, 16 x 16” (40.64 x 40.64 cm)

Close Up

Originally I had planned to stain portions of the newsprint surface with Kusmi tea from Kousmichoff to achieve the antique parchment look, but because the newsprint was adhered to the canvas with a thinned solution of medium gel, this was no longer possible. The use of the medium gel had also sealed the surface and though I could sand away the layer with very fine grit sandpaper, I would run the risk of altering the current look. After having achieved the desired distressed effect, I will just have to do without the Kousmichoff stain and so the surface was permanently sealed with gloss medium varnish.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Stage 3, layers four-five of newsprint after sanding

After sanding the last application of newsprint, the smallest of the three canvases required a specific newsprint that we only receive once a week, when the supermarkets release their grocery advertisements. Since the first layer of newsprint had contained the store header, the direction this canvas would take was set early on.

The week before I had seen a pumpkin patch and the idyllic scene had started to influence my thoughts, but I am keeping my options open. I have considered the possibility of painting a cluster of walnut on a tree or a beautiful Bartlett pear with a touch of autumn colour. But first I will have to add one to two layers of newsprint featuring produce items and only after distressing the new layers could I determining what occurs next.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Stage 4, layers six of newsprint before sanding

Previously I mentioned one would need to cover the entire surface with gel medium after one had glued into place the desired pieces of newsprint, but as I quickly discovered, this also meant one would have to first remove this layer with coarse sandpaper in order to reach the newsprint one was trying to distress and blend. Therefore the recommendation was to thin the gel medium with water so that it would still have ample adherence strength, but one would gain greater control in the sanding process.

After a selection of carefully chosen new images of seasonal produce which were cut to size and temporarily placed on the canvas to make sure the items would enhance the over all composition and appearance of the canvas. For it was important to distribute not only the right image but also a bit of colour.

When it became time to glue down the pieces of newsprint, I noted that by giving the paper a slight mist of water on its backside had added in the adhesion process. The paper became also more delicate to handle and if not careful could rip, however this could be turned into an advantage as another way to distress. Remember different grades of sandpaper is not your only option of distressing, using a small sponge, ones finger or a small tool to work the paper when it is wet allows for different kinds of damage and sandpaper is really the tool that blends the multiple layers.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Stage 4, layers six of newsprint after sanding

Though sanding is a key component in the distressing process, keep looking for other ways to emulate surfaces you have seen and contemplate how you might go about achieving that particular look. What I am representing here should only be considered a starting point and that you should experiment, beginning with the different kinds of paper materials that are available to us.

There are shopping bag, cardboard boxes, corrugated paper, rice paper, recycled hand made paper, tissue paper made from mulberry fibers, and the list goes on and on. What matters is what you the artist are trying to achieve and express with the finished artwork. What you have so far seen is that each canvas started out the same way but after a few layers, each one began revealing a direction it would like me to venture.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas with tissue paper, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Stage 5, layer one of tissue paper before sanding

In order to tone down the various grocery newsprint advertisements and still permit it to be part of the painting, I decided to add a single layer of white mulberry tissue paper. This single layer would also provide a unified appearance to the entire surface of the canvas, but after the application of tissue paper had dried, I felt it did not have enough of a transparency that I was after. Therefore I decided to begin sanding the tissue paper with 150 fine grit sandpaper, carefully working the surface as to only reveal the subsurface textures, all the time keeping in mind what I might be painting.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas with tissue paper, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Stage 5, layer one of tissue paper after sanding

As you can see a compromised transparency was achieved but I also had lost the mulberry fibers that laced the tissue paper throughout and though this unplanned segment ended up being a compromise, I also discovered that tissue paper was far more durable than newsprint. By having sanded the paper considerable down with even pressure, the surface ended up being extremely smooth and because this was a single solid layer of paper, it provided an even surface which also strengthening all the layers beneath it into a solid bond.

Untitled

Newsprint on canvas with tissue paper, 12 x 12” (30.48 x 30.48 cm)

Close-Up

Sanding is only a portion of achieving the desired results that one is after. The selection and placement of the newsprint or different kinds of paper determines the look and direction of your distressed surface. You are ultimately in control of every aspect of the process; so let you imagination take on wings so it may soar.

While being engaged on these three canvases, I also discovered that there is an advantage to working multiple canvases. I was now able to try out different ideas between them and have the results be immediate, with the possibility to having an effect applied to another canvas while the canvas is still at the foundation building stage.

Untitled — in progress

Newsprint on canvas, 20 x 20” (50.80 x 50.80 cm)

Stage 2, layer four-five of newsprint after sanding

As each canvas began revealing a direction, this one was no different. Though it was clear more layers of newsprint were necessary, there were a few areas I felt were finished, particularly the upper right hand area and the large red lettering announcing a ‘sale’. These areas and the portrait of an African American man would need to be protected while working on adding a couple more layers and distressing between each application. We must also not forget that after the new pieces of newsprint had been added and sanded to their desired effect, it needs to be sealed before the next application of newsprint with gloss medium varnish. This would ensure that what had been accomplished previously would not be at risk of being lost while sanding around the area and blending the new layers with the previous one.

Untitled — in progress

Newsprint on canvas, 20 x 20” (50.80 x 50.80 cm)

Close-Up

It is important to keep an open mind and though something is working for you, try finding other ways to accomplish the same thing and see if the results are similar or different, and are the new effects desirable. For example, I was concerned about smaller sections of the canvas, which needed to be protected, but immediately around the area I needed to apply more layers of newsprint for distressing. So I asked myself what can I do to protect this very small section and still have all layers blend naturally with the rest of the canvas.

Untitled — in progress

Newsprint on canvas, 20 x 20” (50.80 x 50.80 cm)

Stage 3, layer six-seven of newsprint before sanding

What I tried was using two different pieces of newsprint, both cut to the same size and after gluing down the first pieces the other newsprint was also adhered immediately afterwards on top of the first. The idea is that once the sanding begins, more pressure would be applied to the area where just beneath was the image one wanted to preserve, thereby removing most of the two layers one had just attached to the canvas.

By applying moderate to less pressure on the remaining area of the two pieces of newsprint, varying degree of layered distressing is achieved and allowed to carefully blend in with the surrounding pieces. This is a critical point, making sure that regardless of the layer one is working on, to make sure each additional piece of paper is carefully blended in with the previously layer for a seamless appearance.

Untitled — in progress

Newsprint on canvas, 20 x 20” (50.80 x 50.80 cm)

Stage 3, layer six-seven of newsprint after sanding

Even though I consider this canvas ready for painting, there has been a debate with myself over the addition of one single, large piece of newsprint that would be lightly distressed and afterwards the canvas would be considered finished. It would be simply a collage with no further additions or manipulations, but for now I will sink into the multiple layers and extract segments, creating another level of view.

The photographs I will share in another posting, are to be a visual essay, taking you on a journey within the distressed collage and the many facets that are pieced together as a puzzle into one image. It is then we will learn this canvases final outcome.

A keeper of memories — part two

There are thirteen photographs in my possession out of a possible forty and all of a wedding. The only reason I know there are forty images is because the printer had numbered them by hand with a ball point pen on the back side, along with the studios contact information. These hand produced 4.5/8 x 3.5/8 inch prints have a sepia appearance because they were printed on sturdy Portralure Paper Y by Kodak and developed with Selectol. This would insure the prints having a warm brown to black tone appearance. However the paper itself also added to the allure of richness, with its pearl like reflective surface composed of a fine satin grain, softening any detail or imperfection.

The numbers that appear on the back of each print in no way can be associated with the sequence of the event the prints pictured. They appear randomized with no connection possible to a negative roll or the films exposure frame. One is left to speculate this to have been a smaller order for a guest or distant family member who was to receive only a selection of prints. However there are far more important mysteries to be unfolded, since none of the prints have any pertinent information other than who was hired to document the event.

The Bergé Studio, which was hired to cover the event, was located in Westlake, a district of Daly City, next to Lake Merced, where I grew up during 1960 to ‘63, just before we moved to the Eichler Highlands. Since photograph marked number three is of the church and there is a car parked in front, I am able to identify the vehicle as a Buick from anywhere in between 1959 to 1962. Regrettable though, the license plate is only a rectangle of solid colour due to the grain of the paper.

Apart from the visual evidence, the Bergé’s studio number was Plaza 5-0884, a system that was abandoned mid-1960’s in favor of an all numeric system. For those who cannot remember, the first two letters of a word referred to part of the number, in this case PL and one would dial PL5-0884 to reach Bergé Studio. Today 75 Fairway Drive is known as the Merchant Circle and the business at that location is GM Electric. According to property records, it last changed ownership on November 19, 1972 for $38.5000.

At least a narrow time frame has been established and now the focus is on the individuals in those photographs. Print number two marked seven, shows the bride and groom, now husband and wife, along with the three bridesmaid and their escorts. The bridesmaids are wearing matching gowns, veils, and gloves, while the men are in their black tuxedos, all have a carnation in the lapel, but not everyone is displaying a handkerchief in the jackets upper pocket.

With thirteen photographs, I hold only one-third of the puzzle. My first real question is about the collection itself and their previous owner. What was the person’s relationship to anyone pictured, for that matter, are they in any of these pictures? If so, who then?

I wish I had at some handwritten comments on the back of any of the photographs, at least a first name of the key characters, but even the lack of this kind of evidence reveals a clue. From the photograph taken during the vows I am able to estimate the number of guests being between forty-five and sixty, a moderate size depending upon your views. At first it would appear this to be an all ‘white’ wedding, but in one photograph were the guest are being greeted at the reception by the couple and the bridesmaid and their escorts, the face of an African American woman. It looks as though she came alone.

Studying the facial features of the two women next to each other, it appears with almost certainty that the maid of honour is also the daughter of the bride. This then raises further speculation as to the bride’s prior marriage. Had she been a widow or was her single status due to a divorce? If she was a widow, how did her husband die and when or how? The Korean War had started June 25, 1950 and lasted until July 1953, the daughter would have been between ten and thirteen years of age, if one estimates her age in the photographs to be about twenty-two.

I am leaning towards the bride having been a widow, based upon that there were 36,574 US military personnel killed in the Korean War and divorce was difficult up to the late sixties since California did not have a ‘no-fault’ policy. I also include into this synopsis that the mother would have mourned for one to two years, followed by about five years before actively dating again and only when her daughter had graduated from high school, possible in 1958. Adding two to three years on top of that for a courtship, I am right back at 1960-1961.

Obviously this is all highly speculative. Yet such information and more can be gleaned from such photographs and with a fertile imagination, can be woven into a tale, a short story or a perhaps, even a novel. Photographs have the power to entrap us with their silence. Especially photographs that are about to be lost forever because of a death, for they seem to cry out the loudest.

The Native American believed a photograph had the capability to steal a persons soul and that person would then doomed to roam endlessly the landscape, searching for peace. Possible they were right after all, as I continue to collect these old black & white photographs, not only for their intrinsic beauty or the mysteries they hold, but for those voices longing to be heard.

Postscript:

The next posting will be part three, the conclusion of Painting 101: Creating a distress background and will be available on the September 20. I am also announcing the development of my third blog, A Portrait in Time, to be launched beginning of the year. Further details will be shared in subsequent posts.

A treasure trove of a find

In the last week there have been numerous distractions which have kept me from accomplishing some of the things that were planned, considering I was going to have a few days to myself in which to do so. If I were to tell you that these distractions were not welcomed, well I would be telling you a gross and deliberate, outright, deceitful, lie.

There are certainly undesirable distractions, but these were not part of the unwanted, not like the robot-phone calls, which seem to arrive just when one is sitting down for dinner. No, this was about connecting with like-minded individuals and trusts me; it was like each one was sitting in the kitchen and having tea and coffee cake. So now a balance needs to be struck between being with friends and colleagues, while devoting still ample time to either blogs, therefore a decision needed to be made and it has but first, let me share with you a wonderful find of a treasure.

Digital duo-tone photograph, September 5, 2009

Earlier today I stopped off at my favorite haunts, searching for collage material, including other items of interest and to my surprise discovered a 1901 Cram’s Superior Family Atlas in questionable condition. The hardcover volume was far from perfect, it was in three pieces, but what matters were the pages, the maps. At ten Dollars, the price was right, but would I ever make use of these pages for collage, considering I love to collect maps?

Besides the atlas, I was rummaging through in a flat filling drawers, finding further back under all the more recent additions, a number of National Geographic maps from 1954 through 1957. Over the years the papers prominence had softened, started the process of aging. Another National Geographic map was far more brittle and already heavily damaged had turned it to a deep amber tone as if soaked by a dark Kusmi tea from Kousmichoff.

There were two other maps, more modern but still distinctive, of areas less traveled to by most non-Europeans. The larger of the two maps covers Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, a city whose seal is very similar to that of my hometown and birthplace, Hamburg. The other chart I purchased is of the town Bayeux in Normandy, France.

Back home everything was once more carefully inspected before setting up near a window a tabletop arrangement with today’s treasures, including a circular object already on hand, to help out with compositional balance. After a number of exposures, the composition was slightly altered and adjustments were made in order to control how the light traveled across each surface of each item. A small, but wide enough form core reflector was placed near the camera to bounce any light back and soften any shadows.

Digital duo-tone photograph, September 5, 2009

Now the hour is late, candlelight fills the room, and there is music in the background. My cat is curled up in her small basket that rests next to me and I review my notes logged earlier in a buff coloured Moleskine notebook. Within the pages I recorded a number of concepts for the blog, like a list of topic ideas I might wish to cover along with a ‘Give Away’ idea and further customization to the sidebar.

To maintain six posts a month and two on ‘The Artist Within Us’, will in the end only suffer in the quality of what is published. The decision to cut back by a third has been most difficult, especially since I love to write. As the other blog already has a publication schedule, then ‘Four Seasons in a Life’ should have its own timetable, this way neither sites will be in conflict and you will know when to expect the next posting. I guess we call this ‘learning on the job’, considering I did not think of it when starting this blog.

A glass of peach tea

The last few days it has been almost impossible to focus and accomplish any work since the Bay Area has had its fog bank disappear, resulting in temperatures reaching the century mark and more. I for one do not tolerate such heat, especially when the thermometer reads only a few degrees less inside the house than what it is outside in the shade and at 102° degrees Fahrenheit (38.889° C), I am useless and so is the laptop.

I had been trying to write the next installment, part three of distressing multiple layers of newsprint on a canvas to create a surface to paint on, when I looked at my glass of ice tea and the chilled bottle, realizing here was a wonderful distraction on the ‘simple pleasures’ in life.

Earlier this year I had purchased a bottle of Lorina lemonade from France because I wanted to recapture the pleasures of my childhood. Having grown up after the war, I still can, but vaguely, remember seeing the bombed out buildings and how precious certain foods were, like bananas, oranges, and strawberries, so even a bottle of flavored soda water was considered a luxury. Just as much a luxury as a small bag of lemon drops, which were carefully weighed by the merchant before he would reach over the counter, and hand me the bag.

There was no allowance, not until a few years later when I received a nickel for taking out the garbage. But those days, living in Hamburg, a city having suffered severe bombings, we were fortunate to live in a flat shared with another family and though we only had one room, it was ours. The only other memories I have of this time were the arguments my mother had with the proprietor, as to when she could use the kitchen or the bathroom. Never the less I tried my best to behave and do all my chores without much of a reminder, knowing that at the end of the week I would receive a reward.

Memory is a fickle thing. As one grows older, the mind becomes capricious and indecisive, resulting in gaps between events and chronology begins to blend its own reality, and we begin to believe this to be the unequivocal truth. Yet I recall specifically the lemonade coming in a shape of a wine bottle, having a ceramic bottle cap, which was connected to a metal mechanism that applies pressure so that the orange rubber at the end of the ceramic nipple creates a secure seal. So when I had that glass of Lorina lemonade several months ago, I not only relived a memory, I restored a sense of my past with the presence.

Though the taste of the lemonade brought back an experience, it is the bottle with its mechanical ceramic cap that has, like a long lost friend returned to become part of my life, to the point that I now have eight such bottles. Not sitting around in idleness or being used as decoration, rather employed to store and chill my peach tea.

Now this simple pleasure of the bottle and pouring the tea into a reused marmalade glass jar engages my mind to wonder and reminisce, reconnecting not only with the past but also with the old country. In many ways I feel fortunate being able to enjoy this singular pleasure, as plastic bottle with an aluminum screw on cap just does not have the same romantic qualities as this glass bottle embodies.