12 Months/12 Experiments: May, Thick & Chunky Displacement

The first week in January each year I write down tangible goals for my art business. Most of the items are based around marketing, exhibitions, residencies, grants, and internal business updates. However in order to expand myself creatively, this year I challenged myself to try different techniques, surfaces, mediums, sizes, and subjects in my works throughout the year, even if I didn't plan to sell any of them! In order to actually hold myself accountable for following through creatively, I assigned myself to attempt something new to me each month of 2021.

Originally I wanted to try 12 different painting techniques in 12 different paintings over the course of 12 months, but then I reconsidered as I didn't want to box myself into just painting techniques: I wanted to include experimenting with different surfaces, subjects, and compositions that I hadn't tried yet. Cue: 12 months/12 Experiments.

If you follow my instagram @kerstinglaessart you probably have already seen this painting as a work in progress on my stories.

May - Thick and Chunky Displacement

My scrapings from April inspired this experiment. I really loved the displaced chunky paint that collected in the corners from the scrapings and wanted to see if I could create thick layers consistently across an entire work.

I mixed a huge amount of a shade of blue that was intended for another work but wasn't quite right, and instead of wasting the paint, jumped at the opportunity to use it for this experiment. The plan was to load a knife with paint and build up layers of thick paint slightly displacing a portion to help build up deep thick paint on the sides. I used a rounded palette knife (similar to #19) to displace the most paint without scraping away to reveal the toned ground. This method was very time consuming, and because I started in the middle, I was constantly flipping the work in order to get the right angle for each side as I made my way toward the edges. I had to load the palette knife constantly to get a consistent amount similar to the other layers on the ground, and due to that this work took up a lot more paint that I am used to using, and currently is taking forever to dry.

I feel like if I had started from the top in a dark blue and slowly added white for each layer it would have a very interesting gradient affect and would look like waves moving toward the shore. I am unsure how feasible it would be to do this at a large scale. I did make a bunch of mini versions using this displacement method with different textured patterns and colors (not just the blue below).

Note: At the time of publishing the works are not currently for sale. They are still drying. All works will be available starting June 1, 2021. Sign up for my seasonal newsletter to get a sneak peak of all the works before they are available on the site. <3

xo,

Kerstin