My mosaic painting of ducks in a pond is disintegrating just from laying around. Every time I walk past the painting a little draft follows me, enough to partly lift the painting ever so slightly since it is so light. The repeated lifting causes more cracking and subsequent cutting loose of small pieces of my painting. Like shards of glass.
The only remedial step for alleviating the continued deterioration is to mount it. Dry mounting would be out of the question. My painting would not be able to withstand any ironing at all. Traditional wet mounting is the only way out.
The painting is laid face down on my slab of mounting plastic and copious amount of water is dumped on it to ensure proper soaking, rendering the fibers in the paper less brittle. My painting wears a dried prune appearance now from all the air pockets.
Normally I would apply and spread my starch solution right away with my stiff brush. The stiff bristles would push out the air pockets and flatten any creases but I think that brush is too harsh in this instance.
I am resorting to a soft brush to try to smooth out all the air pockets before I even apply the starch. The stiff brush is left on the sideline; watching.
More water is sprayed onto the painting to facilitate the smoothing process. Anybody who has applied window tinting sheets onto a glass pane will understand what I am doing. The only difference is instead of using a piece of hard plastic with a flat edge for pressing, I am using a soft brush. The water makes the paper float a bit and it serves as a lubricant and also a sealant to prevent air from re-entering.
After about 20 minutes of careful brushing and re-wetting with water, all the air pockets are gone. I have a flat piece of painting that I can apply starch now. Patience is a virtue.
The starch application invariably causes the frayed edges of the damaged painting to double up and fold upon itself. This is not the time to panic. Instead of using a hard tool like forceps to unfold the tucked in edges, I use a clean brush to unfurl and reposition the frayed edges.
The painting is now ready for starching and backing and mounting. The mounted piece is glued to a hard surface to dry. The drying process will make the painting taut and the starch will add stiffness to the paper.
The mounted "mosaic" painting is now next to the painting that inspired it. I suppose the gaping hole can pass as a void space in the painting, by design, right?
I can honestly say that I've accomplished my resolution for this new year and I am happy about it. I am happy that I am giving Gongbi style technique an honest try, albeit not in the traditional sense. I am not painting peony, blue bird or lotus flowers, the usual thematic matters. I am painting water. However I certainly learned a lot in the process. I am hoping readers of this blog can learn from my mistakes and methods to mitigate them. Let's face it, this is still rather esoteric. I'll chalk this up as a successful experiment, especially when comparing the two paintings side by side.
Not tedious anymore.
Happy April Fools' Day!
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