Painting Out of Frame

In order to transport 5 of my paintings to SAIC in Chicago by suitcase I had to remove them from their stretchers. This seemed like a logical prospect-they could always be re-stretched, right? But there was something about physically pulling them from their frames that seemed so, violent. It put me off my usual painting groove. So in Chicago, I started to paint on them unstretched, with the bends and folds of the canvas now visible. First they were removed from a frame then the frame was a part of them. Then when I started to play with crushed charcoal on raw linen, the frame was inside of the image.

I started to play with the linen, to mold it into a low relief. Why sculpt the surface? I think it was the the linen and its puckering when wet and unstretched that inspired me.

I tried a paint medium to hold the shapes, then fabric glue and finally fabric stiffener. I realized that I had gone too large too quickly and I was struggling with the materials. I had thought of using paper to shape and I had an idea to use watercolor paper because you wet it and stretch it. In a way it's like a felt version of cotton.

I used clothes pins and paint tubes as weights. They took about a day to dry and held the shapes really well.

I was happy with the shapes I was able to make. Although for the best results with a sculpted paper, a mold made for the paper would be the best.

I thought of the best way to add color to these paintings. I tried painting the paper while wet, which gave it a watercolor look, even though I used acrylic paint. I molded a painting after painting on it, the paint stayed on but the paper was not as pliable. There were some unsuccesful attempts, I've found some limitations to paper as well as linen so I've got more testing to do, and more painting to do.