Recently I visited the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and I spent hours just staring in amazement at the beauty of the minerals on display. I want to create a body of work which is inspired by the patterns, colour and texture of these minerals, so I’ve been experimenting with various media to see if I can replicate them.
Been playing with watercolours and inks again, this time adding bleach and salt. Love how the pigment separates and the bleach leaves a yellow tinge to the page. Inspired by the phosphate mineral Turquoise.
I’ve also had fun experimenting with PVA glue, paint and salt. I’ve painted areas of PVA and added acrylic paint, ink and salt into them and left them to dry for a week. Once dry, the PVA takes on a transparent appearance and the colour is contained within the dried form, giving almost a marbled effect. The salt remains crystallized within the PVA, or that which lies on the surface gives a textural effect similar to the mineral grains which I want to portray. I think this technique is effective to represent the colour and texture, streaks, grains, luster etc. I also placed it over the watercolour background and I quite like the contrast between the dull paper and the shiny PVA shape. This is something I will investigate further, perhaps attaching something similar to canvas.
Antidotal Recall 