The Three Year Project- The Final

Hello Friends!

So I thought I would do a post about how I make some of my pieces. This particular piece started in 2013 while I was on vacation with the Patron in Washington State. While driving from Spokane to Seattle I couldn't believe how open everything was. Being from Pittsburgh, wide open spaces are a bit foreign to me. In PGH everything is right on top of each other. One of my favorite things about the city is that it looks like homes are toppling down hillsides or sprouting up from riverbanks. Needless to say Washington was a bit of a shock. I went to school in Ohio so I am not new to farmland... but WOW! We drove for miles and didn't see one tree. I was taken by how large the sky was and how open the roads were. It was peaceful and awesome (literal sense of the word). I took photos as we drove knowing that I would revisit them when I returned to MA. 

Once I got home I forgot about the pictures. I got caught up in returning to everyday life that I didn't see the photos until a few months later. Once I fell in love with them again, I created a 24 x 24 square image (dimensions picked at total random). A few weeks later I found three 8 x 24 canvases at a local craft and art supply store. I loved the feel of the dimensions. Small but still powerful. Big enough to hold the images but still intimate.

The printed 8x8 squares a bit too shiney for my liking.

 I separated the 24x24 image into 9 8x8 pieces. Once printed (I happened to print on glossy paper though the final result has a matte appearance) I attached the images to the canvas using Matte Medium. This took away the gloss finish and sealed the images to the canvas. 

Sometimes you have to be creative when putting weights on a piece... 

The images needed to be weighed down so that the paper wouldn't separate from the canvas while drying. Since the stretcher bars were so close together, books wouldn't fit in this space... luckily for me we had gone on a Yankee Candle spree a few weeks back and the jars fit perfectly!

First coat of medium applied. On;y 16 more to go (just kidding- there is a total of 4 coats)

I get a little paranoid when working off screen. I really wanted these pieces to be secure so I applied several coats of Mod Podge to keep everything in place. I finished the pieces by painting the edges black and sealing everything with a last coat of medium. Because the piece is mostly uncovered paper it can fade easily if not treated. Normally with works on paper you should protect behind UV or museum glass. Since I was treating these panels as paintings I didn't want to introduce glass. I found a UV spray from Krylon called "Preserve It" that seems to do wonders! It protects the work from fading and doesn't ruin my beautiful matte finish. (side note: they do sell Preserve It in a gloss finish as well...  Buy it HERE .... but gloss and I do not work well together right now).

The Final Piece. Currently hung at Gallery 111 in Concord MA.

I am very happy with this project. I ran into some issues along the way- but I am so glad I gave it the time it deserved. Sometimes all you need to do is give projects a little space to breathe... they have a way of sorting their issues out on their own.

If you are interested in this or another piece please visit www.gwyngriffith.com and send me a message. If you are interested in a one of a kind piece please contact me with your thoughts and I would be happy to work with you to create your own special memory "painting."