Thursday, April 21, 2011

Redgum sap for painting

 Fleur has pointed out these hearts while we were out sap gathering today. We have some fine redgum trees just behind our house and we use a little knife to prise out the sap that has oozed out of the trunk.
Usually it has set quite hard so I dissolve it in  some metho and shake it every few days until it is a sticky consistency.

We also have some blackboys growing on the property and some Tasmanian bluegums and we gather that too. Each one is a slightly different colour but you can make it as rich as you like by adding more coats. I play around with paint and pastels underneath the sap to see what colours come up.

The "Silver Princess" painting has a few colours under the sap and I squirt metho on randomly afterwards which shifts the sap in unpredictable ways a bit like when you add salt to a watercolour.

I did quite a few experiments with sap along the way and only some made it into the final piece.

4 comments:

  1. Oh! This is wonderful! I can't believe you do this with Tree Sap!

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  2. I Just popped in from flying..... I love the hearts on the trees. I love finding hearts myself.... Your art is great... don't worry about the comments...not everyone has tie ... but they love to pop in and out .....

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  3. How creative using sap! I love your artwork, especially the one with gold. So original. Keep going, looks great!

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