After working on acrylic abstracts for several weeks, I felt the urge to return to collage and wanted to try something new that I found at the art supply store. Clayboard is a hard surface with ground up kaolin clay applied to hard board and then sanded very smooth to a finish that is very absorbent. I had never tried it before, but it is suitable for inks, gouache, egg tempera, airbrush, encaustics, collage, photo transfers, pencil, caesin and for mounting papers, prints, and fabrics. I usually work with acrylics on stretched canvas or gesso treated hard boards. This is much different and it takes patience initially until you can get the feel of what you need to allow the paint to do. With acrylics you have to work with the paint thinned down to be able to achieve the subtle textures that the clay surface encourages.
I painted the back ground first and then added some painted tissue paper. The same colors and tones were used both with the tissue paper and the background. I wanted it to be confusing as to which was collage pieces and which was the painted background. I also added thin clear plastic strips that I cut from the wrapper for the clayboard. My idea was for it to give a play of light throughout the painting to compliment the different areas of color. I really enjoyed this collage project and will be excited to try another art project using clayboard.
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