A Disaster Transformed into a Weed Painting

June 21, 2011. Our last assignment is to do something on transformation, and I figured that this piece fits the bill.

After all it started as what was supposed to be a wood grain and staples piece that went astray when I went a bit nuts adding spackle texture.
The piece was unworkable as it was. However, when I turn the piece sideways the texture reminded me of grass seeds. Once gessoed, I laid some colour glazes down. 

Inspired by Anselm Kiefer’s use of real objects such as straw, weeds, clumps of earth (see bottom of this post for more of Kiefer’s art), I pulled an attractive weed out of the alley, dirt and all. I tried to stick the plant down with lots of medium but I probably should have flattened it a bit first; it kept popping back up.More paint was applied on top along with spackle dandelions and red tar gel branches.
The finished painting, quite a transformation from where it started out.
A detail of weed painting. My instructor noted that anything that wasn’t completely stuck down could rip so I had to go back several times and re-stick bits and pieces.

• Anselm Kiefer: Here’s an example of his work at the Tate with real palm leaves, called ‘Palm Sunday’, another series of wild flowers (Impasto, not real flowers) called ‘Der Morganthau Plan’ and also a Google Image Search showing a wide range of Keifer’s work. His work is often morbid, with dark themes, all presented in a powerful way. My work is significantly less significant, of course, but perhaps some day I will look more at the dark side of things…
• More on my Mixed Media Classes with Jeanne Krabbendam.
• Our super instructor’s site: http://jeannekrabbendam.com/ On her site she has her paintings plus all the different workshops and courses she teaches.
• More of the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Transformation.

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