I bought ten 10 x 10 inch cradled wood panels intending to use them as tiles for a large work. They are not as good a quality as I had hoped they would be and weren't going to work so I am using them as individual pieces. Here is how I am using one of them.
See if you can guess what well known artist was the inspiration for this piece.
Before painting the panel with a white ground I glued some popsicle sticks to the bottom to act as baseboards. I wanted to make sure the sticks were glued wood to wood rather than wood to paint to make sure they would stick securely. I then painted the panel and sticks white.
I coated the panel portion with a gray brown color leaving the baseboards white.
After a final coat of a light tan color over the darker gray brown I masked off an area in the middle of the panel with same dimensions as the small art strip that will hang next to it to the right. The mask strip is Frog Tape delicate surface tape.
I used some of the gray brown paint on a wet piece of facial tissue to rub over the panel to darken the background. When the tape mask was pulled off the original light color appears making it look like there used to be something there. After this picture was taken I darkened the background a bit more to make the shape stand out more. I also added some nails with the heads cut off to make it look like the baseboards were nailed in place.
This picture shows a tiny gallery exhibit label I made with a piece of extra thick card stock and paint transfer. I created the text with Affinity Designer.
Here is the finished piece. Or nearly finished piece. I’m trying to figure out where to place the tile. The texts in the middle top and bottom where done with paint transfer. The bug at the lower left was drawn with graphite pencil. The long red and blue painted piece is a piece of wood. The sides that you can’t see in this image are painted yellow. It is free swinging with a single nail holding it to the panel at the top.
10 x 10 x 1.5 inches, acrylic house paint, wood, nails, and graphite.
Detail of the bug and stamped signature. I always sign my work with an actual signature as well as location and date on the back.
Detail of the tiny gallery exhibit label and one of the space texts.
Detail of the top of the painted strip showing the nail holding the piece in place. I blackened the head of the nail by heating it with a small torch and dowsing in water.