52 Weeks of Art: Week 18

Week 18: Plaster

Welcome to week 18 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

         This week was another medium I have never used before. It was an interesting one - plaster. We didn't use plaster to make any sculptures or anything. We used it to make sculptural paintings. I know, that sounds like making a sculpture. It's not, it's a little bit different than that.
   
    It's called sculptural painting. Basically, you take some colored plaster and make a 3D painting with it. Sounds easy enough, right?

     Here's some amazing examples of some sculptural paintings:

Some beautiful plaster flowers by Laurel Pulvers

Some more beautiful flowers by Laurel Pulvers

     Alright, it doesn't actually look easy to do at all. I can't even tell you how many videos I watched on how to make these beautiful plaster flowers. But, in the end, I was afraid to even try to make a flower. I just went with some abstract art.

     We mixed up a small amount of plaster. The box said it dries in about 7-10 minutes. So, again, there is a lack of photos on the whole process. I was worried the whole time it would dry out before I was able to do anything with it. Sorry. So yeah, mixed up a little bit of plaster, added some acrylic paint to it to color it, and got to work. 

     Turns out I didn't need to worry about it drying out. It actually took quite a while for it to dry out. Now, when I say dry out, I mean too dry to work with. It still took HOURS for it to dry all the way. After mixing in the paint, I just used a palette knife to apply the plaster. I used a piece of masonite, I was worried that anything else wouldn't have been sturdy enough to hold the plaster. 

      Here is what I created....

     I was going for a little landscape. Some sky, trees, you know.... Rebecca thought it was the ocean. The Little One thought it was some grass. I guess those could all be right. What does it look like to you?

On to rating plaster...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for plaster, my rating is: 18

Ease of use: 4

  This was actually much easier to use than I thought it would be. However, I didn't try to make anything too complicated. I think if I tried anything more sculptural it would have been difficult. If you're just going to plop some plaster down in an abstract style, this was a piece of cake.

Affordability: 4

     You can get a box of about 4 lbs of plaster for about $10. We only used a tiny amount of it, so you could probably make several sculptural paintings with 4 lbs of plaster. I just used a tiny glob of acrylic paint to add color to the plaster. So yeah, it's pretty affordable.

Accessibility: 5

     Plaster is pretty easy to come by. So is acrylic paint. Palette knives are also pretty easy to get. But you could use plastic knives, popsicle sticks, anything.

Fun to Use: 5

    I really enjoyed making a sculptural painting. It was fun. I think this is something everyone should try at least once in their lives. Seriously. Go for it.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!