Painting "ground"

I like considering everything in a painting, every material that goes into it, and this summer's residency gave me an idea. I did extensive work in clay in my first half of undergraduate, and even though that is now ancient history, I still remember enough to take advantage of the ceramic facilities at the NCC East 40. I have to give credit to Joni One-Benintende, a phenomenal ceramic artist, for inspiring me to paint on clay. She does it in a way you see it as a sculpture, and assume the color is the clay or a real glaze, not “just” painted. What I’m doing, coming at this from the perspective of a painter, is going to be very different, but really, I had to mention Joni because seeing a solo exhibition of her work at East Stroudsburg University’s Gallery about a year ago is what sparked my interest in using clay as a painting ground. I just love the pun-get it-clay as a ground, ha ha!

Close up of one of the slabs, showing the natural edge at top, and texture that to me is suggestive of trees and plants in the landscape

When I used old clothing as a painting support, I didn’t want the fact that it was old clothing to become invisible. I wanted you to see it was old clothing-but only if you looked close enough. Likewise, I don’t want the clay to be some sort of imaginary blank slate. I like to partner with the materials I’m using, not make force them to be something else. I want the clay to look like clay, even after it’s painted, I don’t want the clay-ness to be incidental. On the other hand, at least for now, I’m not making sculpture; I do want a “picture plane” of sorts. I could roll out the clay with a rolling pin and trim it to a precise shape, but I’m not. I’m throwing the clay around so it stretches, cracks, and to a certain extent defines its own edge. On the back of the slab I build in some sort of hanging “hardware” that also serves to put the picture plane in front of, not flush with the wall. Or, the table or whatever it’s on-I haven’t ruled out putting the paintings other places than a wall. 

Working on the back of the slab. I looped the clay over to make a tube at top, a cord or branch or wire could go through there to hang the work. The spacer I'm working on here will keep the whole piece hovering away from the wall when it's hung.

From what I’ve found, there are plenty of people using acrylic on clay, but for oil, I have to just wing it, I could not find any advice anywhere. I’m not saying no one has done this, I am certain someone must have/be doing it, just didn’t find them. Knowing what I know about painting technology, I decided that after firing, I would size the clay with rabbit skin glue. Some sort of hide glue, especially rabbit skin glue, is what everybody used historically on any kind of canvass or wooden board before acrylic gesso was invented. I’ve used it on fabric, it’s a great surface to paint on and it’s clear so the clay is still entirely visible. 

An old bisque-only fired sculpture that has survived outside year-round in my garden.

I have some sculptures in my garden that I made around 1979 or 1980, that were only bisque fired.  If these only bisque-fired sculptures can last outside year in year out, I’m figuring bisque is good enough for paintings intended to stay inside, but I do have some that are high-fired. 

This was the beginning of my doodling in egg tempera on the back of one of the fist slabs that was fired and sized with rabbit skin glue.

I began “doodling” in egg tempera on the back of one of the fired & rabbit skin glue sized slabs; it takes the paint great. In this shot, you can see the “hanging hardware” in the form of clay strips with built in hoes for wire or string. Sorry I don’t have any finished paintings, so far I’ve been generating the materials to make the paintings, but when I have my first finished painting, I’ll be sure to post it here! ​​