The Chemistry of Vision, #10

The Chemistry of Vision, #10  [2023]  Acrylic, encaustic, and oil on canvas, 14 x 14"

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I used a 3D-printed stencil for this painting instead of tape. The colored squares are about 19 mm x 19 mm. The acrylic ground was taped in such a way to apply the stencil inside, then filled somewhat with black encaustic (shown below).

I followed that with painting the colors, which took only a few hours, and then upon completion, I immediately removed the stencil, using a little bit of heat. Using this method, I was able to preserve many of the corners (~0.04 mm/px).

Okay, machine, do this!

I let the oil paint polymerize for a few days.

I then reapplied enough heat to melt the under-patinted encaustic heating the entire surface of the painted colors using a large ceramic bulb-type 2500W heater. I placed the painting about 16" below the ceramic heater, at somewhat of an angle (perhaps 30°). The front surface was perpendicular to the ceramic bulb, which was much longer than needed, approximately 4 feet, but it was the best source of heat that I had (over a period of about fifteen minutes, and I also used a heat gun).

It's funny that I forgot to turn the heater off after several hours, it was heating my studio in the middle of a summer heat wave. 

For earlier paintings from this series visit the Chemistry of Vision gallery.

I am currently working on Chemistry of Vision, #11 (COV_11):
  

I will be posting my progress here.