dollarama tt one + two- frugal texture and experimentation

I had a lot of fun with these two textured pieces so I wanted to explain my process a bit more, as it was eye-opening for myself.

dollarama is an amazing store filled with amazing deals for people who are down bad financially like me. whenever I go I find something new that I never realized could be sold for five Canadian dollars or less. as I mentioned in the last post, I have begun to use oil paints again and am returning to my roots as an incredibly messy artist whose hands are perpetually stained. with oil comes the opportunity for more organic looking texture, and that is what has drawn me back into oil. but using cold wax or molding paste can get a bit banal and I find that there are only so many textures you’re able to create with such mediums. so as I was starting to add texture to these two pieces I was sitting there on my painting tarp (I hate easels) getting genuinely bored. I didn’t like the options I had available, but going to the art store was even less appealing. so I made my way to dollarama. amongst other purchases, I got a nice white loofah. loofahs have never really done it for me self care wise, I don’t really understand the point of them when used in the shower. but now I realize I underestimated the loofah and they are a great tool for creating texture. not only is it incredibly fun ripping the loofah up with your hands but since this was not ~impeccable~ quality, once the pieces were detached it was easy to stretch certain parts of those smaller pieces to create even more unique pieces of material. attaching them to the paintings was a bit more of a challenge, I was putting pieces of loofah on top of wet paint or wet molding paste and they did not want to stick in general and definitely did not want to stay all the way pressed down onto the piece. I also was, of course, using my hands which made the process much more frustrating as the loofah pieces seemed to be sticking everywhere except the painting. once I got small portions of each piece attached I stepped away and let the works dry. once they dried and I was also able to get the entire pieces of loofah colored with the shades of red/orange on the piece’s background, I was happy with the pieces but the loofahs were sticking up in a very unattractive way. I realized I had an acrylic gloss finishing medium that would probably weigh down the loofahs enough to have them not sticking up. but not only was I wary of mixing acrylic with oil, I was worried about the outcome in general as I prefer when a piece is not covered in a coat of resin and made glossy. regardless, I poured the coat on top and waited an excruciating few days for them to dry, (I’m actually still waiting on the second one to dry as I type this and it’s been over three days), and something beautiful happened. I have zero grasp on chemistry so I cannot explain why this happened, but countless cracks and crevices appeared in the glossy top coat. this added texture appearing on top of an already textured piece created a look that I am in love with…. there is so much to look at even though the pieces are small in size. the reaction created endless movement that varies yet is cohesive throughout the layers of the painting.

so, to wrap it up, I want to thank dollarama for allowing me to create such beautiful texture so easily and effortlessly. while I was there getting the loofah I picked up a few other materials I can use in paintings as texture. I look forward to seeing what these dollarama objects allow me to do next.