Following my research into Rauschenberg's 'Erased de Kooning Drawing' I decided to try making a painting and obscuring elements of it rather than completely destroying it - I wasn't feeling brave enough! I decided to keep the colour scheme to monochrome for simplicity so I could make the focus of the experiment the obscuring of the image. I chose a composition I have worked with in previous experiments taken from one of my monoprints, again for simplicity. I started by using a natural sponge to create a textured background using partially mixed black and white acrylic. I then added the figures, again using natural sponge which gave crudely rendered figures as it is difficult to achieve fine detail using this method.
I then mixed the black and white paints into grey, adding incrementally more white with each application. I again applied the paint with the sponge, dabbing it over the figures to obscure them. I was not happy with this composition or with the texture created here, so I decided to make another attempt.
I decided to work with a mask created from a cut out photo of a single figure fixed into the photo frame which I could then move to whatever position I wanted it and to account for the movement of the sun. The process made me very aware of how quickly the sun's position moves in relation to a fixed position! I also found that as the afternoon progressed the images became increasingly distorted as the shadows lengthened - an effect which I liked.
This time I used a brush instead of a sponge both to create a wash, to build up the background colour, to paint in the figures and to obscure the figures. I think this was a more successful composition - I liked the positions of the figures and the smoother application. I think the obscuring of the figures is more successful here, with only a trace image left.
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