Marks and More Marks

I ordered a large roll of mixed media quality paper early in January. What a great way to start the year! The paper holds and absorbs the paint in a different way than canvas or board. That threw me a bit at first but continued experimentation is beginning to overcome the differences. The sheer volume of available paper (42" wide by 8 yards) is thrilling. So far, I've worked on smaller pieces because my work surface is limited. When the weather warms up a bit I can move to my painting to the garage where I have a larger table and more wall space. 

Marks and  more marks! I have played around with as many mark making tools as I can find around the studio: sticks, skewers for dragging paint and scraping lines into the paint, Q tips, and more. I've has especially loved the graphite stick that has been kicking around with my stuff for 50 years. I'm trying to get the hang of painting with a brayer, too, but so far it doesn't seem to roll very well.  It makes great marks, however.

This piece uses 2 hand painted collage papers in black and white, that were later painted a bit, as well as some text torn from a magazine page. I am challenged by the simple act of painting a line with a brush. It never looks right to me.  In piece below I used a transfer process of painting the line on a piece of plastic wrap and then flipping the wrap over to print it on the paper.

What will I do with these paintings on paper? It almost doesn't matter. The exciting thing is that I am developing experience with color and composition and tools. There is lots of potential collage paper here, if nothing else. Most of these are 16" x 20", or at least 14" X 14", So, smaller pieces could be cropped out to be matted and framed, or mounted on a cradled board and finished.