Close up of the paper mache’ people and dock…
Painted along with the rest of the painting with acrylic paint and spray painted with an enamel semi gloss.
Finished product framed with complementary wood frame.
I find, and re-purpose all my frames because they are so critical to the overall design. I have my frame picked out before starting work on a project.
This is the fourth painting I have done using a newly discovered (by me) sculpting material I’m calling paper mache’ clay. I have been moving in this direction from using sculpted ceramic pieces because ceramics are breakable and have limitations in size and color (glaze colors are unpredictable and limited). I am enjoying getting to know this new material.
Working with paper mache’ clay is more like frosting a cake than it is sculpting with clay. I have been doing it in layers and letting it dry in between. When I wanted these dock people to stand off the canvas, I built their butts and inserted tooth picks. When that was dry and sturdy I started adding their bodies to the toothpick structures. It is still somewhat experimental but fun and challenging creatively, which I find entirely exciting.
Finishing touches were done with a drimmel-like tool (not name brand) to grind and smooth and get the desired texture. The only challenge with this material so far is to keep the whole thing flat as it dries, as it tend to shrink some as it dries which makes the whole think bend. I’ve been trying to solve this with clamps and it seems successful.