Open Art Competition WIP

Remember this piece?


At the time of posting it I explained that it was a prototype for a larger version on wood, and that I wouldn’t start it until the following week because I was waiting for materials. Well that was over two months ago! The larger version is supposed to be my entry into the Open Arts Competition run by the local council for our area. Seeing as the entry date is this coming Monday I decided to pull my finger out and get started on it!

I got the piece of wood out on Monday evening, ready to make a start, only I noticed it didn’t quite look “right”. I got the tape measure out, and sure enough the piece of wood was wider at one end! This is a problem because I wanted to get the piece framed, and I don’t know anywhere that makes wonky ones! The other problem I had is that I was running out of time and I wasn’t sure if the framers could frame it before next Monday.

Aha!

I decided to buy a ready made frame and then buy a piece of wood to fit that! You can imagine my delight when I went into the shop and stumbled across a frame with broken glass in it! Seeing as I didn’t need the glass I thought I would try my luck at getting a discount – and I got it for half price!

Next step was getting a piece of wood to fit, so I took the board out of the back of the frame and took it to a timber yard to get a piece to match. I got home and tried it in the frame… success! So far so good!

I primed the wood this afternoon with PVA glue, and this evening I have mixed and applied the plaster (remembering to leave a gap at the edge so that the wood will still fit into the frame), and moulded the contours. I have made an incredible amount of mess but I have had so much fun!

Now I wait ‘til tomorrow for it to dry. I’m undecided whether to prime the plaster with gesso and then paint it a sandy colour before gluing on the sand (in case some of it comes off in time), or whether to just glue the sand straight onto the plaster. You will no doubt find out tomorrow!

This is how it looks so far:


It measures 50cm x 75cm - or 19.5 inches x 29.5) I now wish that I had put the footprints at a slightly different angle so that I could fit more on! (They look like weird footprints - but they're mine!) The rubbish in the sand is the "modern twist" that I had mentioned previously. Both the Coke can and the corner of the crisp packet sticking out of the sand have a logo on them of a person putting rubbish in a bin. The other piece of rubbish sticking out is a polystyrene box.