A new year brings new opportunities but only if one pushes oneself to higher heights. I’m taking advantage of having a studio space to build some innovative ideas that are just asking to be born. Picture if you will, an Eastern Red Cedar card table with green transparent resin surrounding the circles of its growth. Woodworking has always appealed to me but the bigger tools come with a bigger expense. With careful planning and construction, I’ve found that I can build this outstanding fold-able card table. Here are some of my raw materials:
Irregular boards for live edge top of card table and regular cut legs to be attached with hinges.Eastern Red Cedar “cookie” slice 1 inch thick for center of card table.resin filled card table under construction – red cedar cookie in the middle surrounded by green resin and live edge cedar planks
Tessellation in Resin
Another idea you should see completed soon is my hot air balloon tessellation. A tessellation is the contents of a 60° 60° 60° triangle mirrored to its respective sides. I have designed a hot air balloon motif from bent brass rods. The spaces between will be filled with colored transparent resin, much like a stained glass window. This piece measures 23″ x 23″ and it will be illuminated for hanging on a wall with four aluminum stand-offs.
Copper and Brass Metal Work
I’ve also been doing a lot of work with metal. My first experience was the brass spiral staircase inside the lighthouse. Then I used copper tubes as frames around resin tiles. My latest work is just a fun copper dandelion plant with a puff ball.
Just waiting to be set in your window as an attractive sun catcher, this tiled piece of eye candy will brighten your day and your home.Window panes and snowflake molds laying on a home-made light table. The backlit illumination shows the potential of these window panes to screen the outside but transfer the light inside.Looking upward at my first sellable lighthouse sculpture. This piece took a lot of planning and trials and fitting and trying again. It is a unique model of a lighthouse set with a firm rock foundation. The walls are resin and they are joined with resin. The lantern room is a diamond textured cylinder which refracts the light.brass skeleton of planned resin art painting in the shape of a hexagon
Built to Order, Commissions
If you have an idea in your mind just waiting to be built then please call me. I love transforming ideas into reality. Here’s a photo of a commission piece that I made for a customer (who gave me a 5-star rating for the project).
$25 per hour plus materials. Commissions Example. Watch encased in clear resin and set on a metal plate inscribed as a gift. This idea came from a customer and I was able to build it to specifications and to the satisfaction of the customer. 5 star rating on Google Reviews.
Life can be a surprise in the worst and the in the best ways. I never dreamed of having a studio but this happened and it has defined me. My boss at Blick Art Materials needed someone to take over rent space. That was another best surprise. The studio is character-rich and only six blocks from my house. I was concerned about the expenses. However, my wife was pleased to have a place for me to work on resin. It was better than using the picnic table or the garage. This studio is ideal! The outside is charming and the windows beckon people from Leavenworth Street to stop and come inside. I have been here for a year now. I’ve made many resin artworks to test my ideas. These works show my abilities. I’ve taken a couple commissions. I hope to have more. I want to sell resin art that I build and keep this going in my retirement.
Open House Saturday, November 30th, 2024. This is my grand opening! If you are here in Omaha or nearby, please stop in to say hello. We can talk about art and share ideas. There are so many reasons to make art. My reason is simple decoration. I would like to hear what inspires you. I do follow my interests which are oceans, mountains, geometry, windows, and anything transparent and colorful.
I’ve spent two years working with resin and creating “paintings”. These #resinpaintings are something I learned to make using my own ideas and that has evolved into my art form. On Instagram, I’ve seen people making castings of “water” to hang on the wall. Others create river tables. Some design blue-green coastal scenes with real sand. They use white acrylic paint spread with a hair dryer to look like surf. Those artists have their specialty, and they’re good, but I wanted my own. Something to hang on the wall, something medium to large in size, something illuminated, and especially… something transparent.
“Sunrise” 26 x 24 x 1 inch hanging from three anchor shackles.
Basics
I use red, blue, and yellow resin colorant, as well as green, orange and violet. Yes, in theory I could make the secondaries green, orange and violet. However, in practice, it is helpful to have manufactured secondaries. They can be mixed with a primary for a better controlled mix. These resin colors are transparent. This is most important because light shines through my paintings like a stained glass window. These basic colors, plus black and white, give me all I need to create an interesting geometric or landscape painting. My scenes are strong compositions with uniform or abstract shapes. Shades of color are separated by a clear caulking glue used to draw lines and boundaries before pouring colored resin. Within each shape, it is possible to manipulate the color or leave it as a continuous shade. My geometric paintings are tiles of color forming a pattern. My landscapes are abstract shapes forming a picture. Both require a method to control and separate colors while the liquid epoxy resin cures. The caulking sealant glue is clear so lines become invisible like clear resin. The final product is a slab of colored resin about 1/2″ to 1″ thick. Overall dimensions are 18″ to 30″ and sometimes squares, rectangles or hexagons.
Geometry
Geometry plays an important part in the construction of art. The featured subject inside of a rectangular frame is so common. I wanted the opportunity to change that, and not place a frame on each piece. Incorporating a different shape around the art that fits the composition seems a natural step. One geometry element I like to use are triangles, because they can be assembled into patterns, tessellations, and greater compositions. Any picture can (and should) be broken down into abstract shapes. These shapes fit together and create interest. Some of the resin art I create may seem elementary. It is certainly lo fi (low fidelity), chunky, and perhaps without detail. I see color and shape as the two most interesting qualities of art.
diamonds of colored resin in 1 inch thick slab of transparent epoxy resin lying on a white background in full sun
Watercolor Analogy
The transparent quality of watercolor is what pulled me toward resin. A watercolor artist can overlay two colors to make a third color. The first layer of pigment is pure and brought out by the white of the paper. The second color modifies the first. In a similar way, two colors in resin can be overlayed to make a third. I’ve figured out how to build layers of a resin painting and those layers optically mix. So, much like watercolor, the final composition of my resin slab is an assembly of shapes. These shapes are separated horizontally. Then, they are modified and enhanced by vertical layers. This takes a little planning so I make detailed drawings at scale.
“Bioluminescence”, 23″ x 28″ x 0.5″ transparent resin painting in blue, green, black, and yellow with light blue mica powder. Night beach scene of bioluminescent surf washing on shore with mountains and horizon in distant dark sky
Preparation Drawings
The process I have learned to use involves working out the angles, lines, curves, intersections, overlaps, and colors on paper. Then, I enlarge that about 3 times for a working drawing size. The working drawing is traced onto clear acetate and used in the layout of the painting. I’ve been fascinated while creating a design, often working for days in a row on one drawing. Not every concept makes it to a resin art painting, just the best ideas. I’ve explored tiles, tesselations, illusions, patterns, arrays, rotations, spirals, clock like figures, cubes and triangles. Hexagons are very easy to conform into stairs of cubes for example, it just takes the right geometry and shading.
wave tessellation: blue waves with a white crest set inside a 60° triangle and reflected across the triangle boundary over and over in all directions
Color Wheel
If you haven’t worked with and studied the color wheel then you are missing an important part of art. It is also fascinating. You may say that is elementary. It is true, but the color wheel gives us insight into the rules and the exceptions. I began my exploration of resin by just using red, blue and yellow. Now I know how these work to give me a variety of colors, just like watercolor painting. Nowhere on the color wheel is phthalo blue but many unusual combinations come from mixing this cool blue. See https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2021/02/09/the-unique-qualities-of-phthalo-pigments/
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