This first piece is the required catalog piece and it is called:
"1668 Art School Road" which is the address of the studio depicted in this piece.
21"h x 31"w with a three level hardwood frame.
Following this will be a triptych piece of the Washington and Lincoln buildings at Historic Yellow Springs. It is underway at this writing and not yet finalized, nor is it titled. (?Georg and Abe?)
The mock-up:
The current plan is that these pieces will have an integral frame, probably perforated and more floating than attached. Looking closely it can be seen that the bias cut Wormy Chestnut matte these three images have in common bring the eye up and to the center. Part of the current issue is that the upper center has nothing to support that directional device once your eyes follow the directional device. One attempt has a suggestion of a significant tree on the property. I'm also considering the hospital ruins as a focal point.
I am now open for suggestions for PA #3 as I like the idea of the Penna Series. I'm hoping for landmarks and well known scenes.
Saturday, Feb 10th.
Decided that the excessive negative space of the upper central piece was the problem blocking the finish of this piece. Have now cut down the width of the central piece and am mocking up cloud structures for the distant sky behind the buildings. In truth, there is a thin forest back there. However, every effort to suggest a forest stole thunder from the buildings.
Now current mock-up:
Once these cloud structures are ready, the next step is to decide on the layup: ie, will it be a triptych or will it be a single panel with some sort of design device separating the three panels. We'll see.
Thursday, Feb 15th.
Decisions have happened. The piece will be a single large panel, roughly (at the moment) 26"h x 40"w. Two 'design devices' have been inserted between the three panels, the clouds have been finalized and the whole has been matted with Brazilian Rosewood.
Now current mock-up:
There is a mild feeling of negative space in the upper central panel. I am experimenting with a large gnarled tree to give 'enough' focus to that area. Don't want it dominant though.
Getting close to laying up the panel. At the moment I am planning a light colored fairly thin hardwood frame surrounding the Rosewood matte. It should complete the integration of image to matte/frame.
Friday, February 16th.
First, a close-up of the detail I call a design device which separates the three panels. It is essentially a miniature raised panel with the center being Mappa Burl and the chamfer being Sapele. The rails and stiles are Sycamore strips. Note also the cutoff portico from when I made the center narrower runs through and is part of the device also.
The detail:
Finally, pre-layup fascia skin as I call them, here is the final face of the piece prior to re-taping. The new gnarled tree is now inlayed. Some shading and fine tree branching will be added with a hot knife following layup and pre-sanding. Re-taping is the only thing remaining prior to laying up the 3 part sandwich of Veneer face/MDF core/Kraft paper compensator backing.
RE-taping: It can be seen I hope, that this is the finished face. On the back are many layers of blue painter's tape holding this assembly together. While doing the inlay in many steps, the tape build-up on the back (which will become the glue-down surface) can be as many as 4 (or more) layers thick. Here is the back of this piece prior to re-taping:
There are 2 reasons that I work with the front untaped until just before layup:
>First is I'm not clever enough to work an image in reverse - no kidding here, way too easy to get lost as to what goes where working in mirror image.
>Second: I discovered many years ago that the press-down in veneering can be irregular if there are an irregular number of tape thicknesses on the face when it is pressed. Any place where there are the fewest number or even no tape can fail to be fully pressed down causing pockets of glue and therefore a disaster called alligatoring = a sort of washboard irregularity in the surface which literally causes you to sand right through the high spots during the initial sanding.
So, the process goes like this from here: I first put new tape on the face, as much as possible only one layer thick. After every seam is taped on the front I turn it over and start removing all those layers of tape on the back or glue surface. This couldn't be more precarious of a procedure as it is very common for tiny pieces of veneer at seam intersections to come away with the tape. Tedious is an understatement for this part of the work. No miracles to the process other than I use the very sharp corner of a chisel to start each piece of tape and then slowly watch the tape come free. If a piece of veneer appears to be releasing with the tape I use that same chisel to separate the tape and veneer piece which I finally press down into the new front tape. Clear as mud? read it slower and it might come clear.
Wish me luck: more after the piece comes out of the press.
Saturday, February 17th.
Successful press, all seems good.
Right out of the press, this is what it looks like. face tape still on.
The process from here amounts to carefully removing the tape. If the blue painters tape is removed in the first two hours after coming out of the press, generally it comes off cleanly. There are some woods that have what I call fragile grain. What I mean by that is the fibers are not well connected and because of that some fibers will tend to pull right out of the wood during tape removal. In this piece the vulnerable woods are the Holly (very light beige color) and the Lacewood (a peach/brown color.)
On occasion the perfling (narrow strips that separate the borders) can be fragile also. We'll see.
My method for pulling the tape is actually incorporated with careful placement of the final taping done yesterday on the face. Given the vulnerabilities of various woods, the tape is applied across the grain as much as possible rather than with the grain. This is done so during removal I am never pulling the tape continuously along a piece of veneer. Continuous pulling is the greatest way to ruin all of the previous work.
Here is the piece with the tape removed, not yet sanded or trimmed to size.
It shows some minor fiber lifting but no real damage from tape removal. Next is level sanding (120 grit power oscillating disc sander) to simply get all veneers to be absolutely flat and level with each other and expose anything that might need touch-up or even serious repair. Remember, veneer is not equal thickness. The various veneers can be from 0.3mm thick all the way to 0.7mm thick. This first sanding levels them. After trimming to size I will then sand the face again with 180 grit. After all other pre-finishing work is done and prior to sealing it will be finIsh sanded with 320 grit to finally remove all scratches and prepare the wood for a seal coat of lacquer.
Sanded 120 grit to level, edges trimmed. Ready for detailing and touch up.
There are a few flaws, but all and all it is quite clean. The detailing will be interesting. When doing pieces like this the important decision is when to stop. Some detailing will be pyrographed (wood burning knife) some will be ink, or oil pastel, mostly shading on this piece to give it depth. I'm expecting to add some finer branches to the center tree and also to the large dark tree in front of the Washington Building (left.)
Never sure how long it will take to do this, partially because I am prepping for a new exhibit at the Art League of Ocean City. It will start with a reception on March 2nd from 5 PM to 7 PM. The subject is "Note" Worthy - art inspired by music, a specific tune or even a specific performance. I will be posting my two submissions to this exhibit soon.
Friday, February 23.
Finally got back to this piece. If you look closely you can see the changes. Many new branches in all three panels have been pyrographed (wood burning) into the piece. The roofing details were finished by simply adding little horizontal burns in rows. The windows now have tiny indications that there moldings are actually there and the larger tree trunks have been given shape with oil pastels. Finally, the fountain in the middle now has a little shape, also via pyrography.
This piece will now sit for some days while I decide if it is ready for seal coating. Seal coating allows for some subsequent steps in detailing but it also prevents the use of pyrography and oil pastels. Therefore, a wait and debate. I am also going to work on the frame for a while. At the same time I will be planning the framing of a few of my SoDel series pieces so that they will be ready for Yellow Springs also.
Once I decide on which to take (and then frame) I will mention that here.
BTW: I will also be taking one of my more stunning pieces to Yellow Springs:
"Composition #18 - Order"
This piece is about to be framed also. We are speculating on a semi attached frame weighted at the ends more than continuous around in equal widths. The piece is convex in that it is higher in the middle than it is at both ends. A happy accident due to an unfortunate (fortunate?) hanging problem at a previous exhibit. I tried to straighten it and it sudden;y dawned that we like it this way so why not enhance the curve with a frame that compliments that issue. Errors, damage and problems are almost alway opportunities. Lemons into lemonade.
That is the plan currently. This piece got a lot of attention the last time it was shown.
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