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SMALL SCULPTURES: AEROSOL ENAMEL

Series 1

Hollow Maple Sculpture - Painted with Aerosol Enamels


When I started working with the hollow maple I found myself wondering how to paint these complex forms. The painting wants to be distinctive, a partnership, but not distracting from the natural forms. Spray painting is an interesting approach to this challenge.


My first thought was to approach an auto body shop. The guys who work there know about spraying. And I find some of the current car paints to be attractive, interesting, and durable. The immediate problem, though, is that I didn’t have a budget -- this type of painting would be pricey. I decided to try the aerosol spray paints that are at any building supply center or consumer paint store. I approached the idea with caution.


The sculptures would need to be primed before getting final coat. Spray primers behaved considerably better than expected. No running and quick drying. The same is true with the finish spray paints. This stuff is far, far better than it was in the past. It’s easy to control. And the results are better than acceptable. I also discovered that there are now many variations in the aerosol spray paint world. Besides the expected colors in gloss and satin, there’s a range of metallics, hammer finishes, crazed finishes, and even glitter. (Glitter turned out to be tricky to control; but I liked it.) One of my favorites is a spray paint with a rough, sandy-looking finish that resembles bisque ceramics. Rustoleum -- one of the major suppliers of aerosol spray paints – is also a major supplier of the newer hi tech polyurethane auto body paints. I’m guessing that some of the technology has filtered into the consumer spray paint world. Rustoleum also turned out to be the best spray primer of those that I tried.


Series 1 sculptures were made while the material was still green during the winter of 2015 and 2016. Series 1 are distinguished with hand-made gouge tracks over the flat sawed end-grain surfaces.


20 pieces designated AE-1 through AE-20



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