Whatever Happened to those Teeny Tiny Paintings?

Ages ago I posted a blog with snapshots of a series of small (6″ x 6″) paintings in progress. I finished them weeks ago and Jim promptly photographed them.  I totally forgot to post the finished pieces until a group of new 6″ x 6″ panels I had ordered from Dick Blick were delivered a couple of days ago. Before I’m allowing myself to start on the next group, here are the seven completed pieces.

I need to come up with catchier titles for each of these. The long section toward the bottom of the painting just above my signature is a piece of a sheet of paste paper. Yes, I do offer workshops in how to make paste paper, but alas, you just missed the class.

 

Bet you can figure out where the paste paper is in this one!

 

The way I apply the paste paper to the panel is by carving out the area of the board so that it’s lower than the surface of the panel. In this case, I got tricky. The piece of paste paper was a scrap in which I had punched out a leaf form. I’m guessing I used the leaf to glue onto one of the holiday cards I sent out. I decided I liked the negative shape of the leaf so instead of cutting it off, I left it. I carved the panel to the shape of the paste paper without carving out the leaf shape.

 

The paste paper is glued into the carved out area using Golden Soft Gel acrylic.

 

Once the paper is securely adhered to the panel, I outline the edges in black acrylic paint.

 

When the black outline is dry, I put tape around the outside of the insert and pour glossy acrylic medium over the top. Because the paper is slightly lower than the surface of the painting surrounding it, the clear acrylic pools in its little depression.

 

Once the gel is completely dry, I pull off the tape and voila! It occurs to me that an awful lot of work goes into each of these small pieces.

Now that I’ve completed  this blog post, my reward is to get started on the next batch of teeny tiny paintings!