Identities – Preliminary Acrylic on Wood

This is a close-up of a piece from a series I’m currently working on entitled “Identities”.

I made wooden “canvases” a few weeks ago with my buddy Lee. They were cheap, about $6 a piece for 32″ x 24″, and have since given me something new to experiment with. A lot of people paint on wood, but this was my first experience with wood as a canvas. I began to realize how beautiful the grain was and really wanted the identity of the wood to show throw.

I started thinking about how I could accomplish this, and what kind of artistic opportunities were open to me now that I was working with a rigid structure. It dawned on me that I could probably paint something in acrylic, and actually sand it down. My hunch was right.

I painted thick, let it dry, and then applied a few consecutive coats of watered down blacks and browns. The wash settled into the valleys formed by the paint, as well as the small cracks in the wood, which helped to accent the grain.

There are still a few more steps I want to take with this piece, and the series as a whole, but here is another close-up, this time of the center, and the piece as a whole, after sanding.

What do you think?

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Tags: acrylic, acrylic on wood, acrylic painting, Art, painting, painting techniques, red, texture, yellow

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