This piece of art started life as a printed canvas with dabs of paint that I purchased at The Warehouse in Christchurch for $9.95
I firstly painted over the canvas with Gesso and while the paint was still wet I placed some Cocksfoot stalks and another unknown type of grass that I collected from the Hills of Christchurch.
These grasses were dry already otherwise they would rot.
So I placed the grasses down onto the canvas and applied a watery Gesso mixture to hold them down. The next morning about 10 hours later I applied another watery Gesso mixture to the canvas, especially the grasses.
What can be seen below is actually the left and right sides of the canvas and this is after 2 coats of watery Gesso. I think it will need another 2 or 3 coats before I am happy with the texture and that the grasses are actually fully encased in paint.
After the 4 or 5 coats of Gesso are dried I am planning on painting normally and may also apply some other wood that I collected along the bottom of the canvas but this is yet to be decided.
I am thinking of painting the grasses using a mixture of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna but this is yet to be decided as well.
Something for me to work on over the weekend....