And Yet More Chalk Paint Art

One of the exciting (and at the same time frustrating) things about creativity is that it flourishes in the unknown: in play that has no defined purpose, in experimentation, in using new and unusual materials. My chalk paint project with The Painted Bench has been all about this kind of play. My previous posts about this project (post 1, post 2) illustrate the qualities and textures of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint ® applied to collage. Today I'm going to show you some other applications that all came about from trying out the paint with different surfaces. Bring on the assemblage!

Assemblage is a bit of a hybrid between collage and sculpture. Collage (which comes from from the French word "colle", which means glue) pieces together flat pieces. Assemblage does the same thing, but with pieces that come in all shapes and dimensions and require and little more than glue to piece together. I have bins of bits of junk in my studio that have been waiting to situate themselves in some artwork, and the chalk paint project was the perfect opportunity to let them shine.

While playing around with the chalk paint, I discovered another wonderful application for the paint. Chalk paint can be watered down very effectively to create various tints: it can create a sort of watercolour effect that can also be layered. I had the idea to do some pen and ink drawings and tint them with the chalk paint. And then I had the idea to incorporate some of these tinted pen and ink drawings into assemblage pieces. Here's what happened.

I did this piece on an old wine box lid. Can you guess what's in this artwork? Did you spot the salad servers? Good. I'm glad you noticed those. There's also lots of other stuff: buttons, lace, clementine crate mesh, window screen, ribbon, wallpaper, cheesecloth, a playing card, a teabag sleeve and nails. And paper. Oh, and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint ® and Soft Wax. The chalk paint handles the surfaces of all different pieces really beautifully.

Just for fun, here's a picture of the little pots I use for mixing chalk paint.

This piece is done on an old drawer, and it features lots of things I have found at the beach over the years, like old metal bits and washed up wood (the piece on the bottom). It also features old bamboo garden stakes, lace, vinyl, chicken wire, wood lath, nails, staples, paper, and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint ®. Of all the pieces I did for The Painted Bench, this one is my favourite, for whatever reason.