Sunday, August 8, 2010

Journal art to canvas

It's strange how different substrates can influence your feelings when you're making art. When working on loose pieces of paper the pressure is off and it is just play all the way. As I planned this weekend I made an attempt to move my journal art from paper to canvas. I chose a so called 3D canvas that is 3 cm thick and measures 30x30 cm.

Here's what I came up with (sorry about the glare from the camera flash):


As you can see I used the wooden heart I spoke of earlier, this time no copy!

And to give you a better impression of the painting I'll also show it from an angle so you can see what I did to the sides:


I am quite happy with the result, but what is interesting to me is that I felt much more pressure to perform when working on this canvas than I did with the acrylic paper. I think it's the same thing that some people have with art journaling in really beautiful journals. There seems to be a different feel to a cheap blank book with flimsy paper than to an expensive moleskine for instance. The prettier, the more expensive, the highter the pressure to perform. With blank books I am getting over that hump just fine lately, but when it comes to canvas I still have a lot to learn, or maybe...unlearn?
Why would a canvas feel more important than a piece of paper? I mean, I can tell that one is more expensive than the other and less easily thrown aside, but still...why does it matter? If a canvas does not turn out right I can always gesso over it and use it again, just like with paper I can just get another sheet. Once again: it's all in the mind. Ah, what happy artists we'd be if we could just put our mind aside!