Natalie Sirett Art
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Natalie Sirett Art

Told largely in Pictures

7/6/2014

 
I have recently finished the series of diptychs: DETOXIFY-ME, using egg tempera for the first time and recording the work in progress. 
To make the exterior of the fourth diptych: THE CURE FOR MADNESS, I wanted to set a medallion-style copy of Bosch's "Stone of Folly" on a faux-leather background. 
I began by coating a poplar box with several layers of gesso (whiting and rabbit skin glue), sanding each layer smooth. 
To establish the main tonal changes in Bosch's painting, I mixed Indian ink washes of various strengths and blocked out the design.
To create the faux leather effect. I overlaid layers of darker colour with light. In the process, I learned that tempera is much stickier than oil paint, it dries unexpectedly.
While lighter layers were still wet, I blotted them with crumpled tissue paper and scrunched up carrier bags.
I usually use ready mixed paint from tubes so mixing up raw pigment from scratch was an adventure. This lovely pigment is green earth.
It's a pressure trying to do justice to Bosch. I made concerted efforts, but struggled to get tempera's famed 'jewel-like' effect. I gilded the frame around the medallion with yellow-gold leaf. 
 In the end I decided that Hieronymous would have to settle for a textured and less than jewel-like tribute.To seal the box, I sprayed the surface with fixative and added a thin, temporary varnish. 

As ever with a new medium, I felt simultaneously frustrated by my lack of mastery and excited by the different ways tempera behaves. When making the exterior of the second box, SHOCK THERAPY, I began to play around with scratching into the gesso surface with an old school compass, creating a faux-snakeskin texture, then washing semi-transparent colour into the grooves. I will definitely be using this medium again. 




 
www.sirett.com
Caroline Rix
8/6/2014 03:37:37 am

More of this please it is great to hear and see how you were creating this. It makes you feel involved as the viewer of the art. History repeating is so revealing as we tend to think w are constantly changing but it is surprising how little actually changes within the present. Flux becomes curiously stable. Fulfilling potential and moving forward are phrases oft used but seem to lack any actual sense.

Natalie Sirett link
9/6/2014 11:38:24 am

Dear Caroline, That's so true. The stability of flux... Hmmm sense a photographic project approaching?


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