7 MARCH: Templates on wood veneer

This is the first template work on wood veneer, which I made for B's birthday card. It sports the letter B, and paired images to reflect the Pisces star sign as planned in the diary of templates work last week. It was more difficult to make than I imagined, although I made it in exactly the same manner as the ones in the diary of templates. I wanted to work with the wood to strike a balance between the collaged and painted shapes, and to allow the wood the illusion of coming forward in some areas.

I also like the idea of one system crossing another unrelated system, which came from some work on book pages I was doing about 6 years ago in which coloured linear drawing crosses the lines of printed text. A while ago I really wanted to make something of it on wood grain, but couldn't find the materials until B gave me some carpentry veneers last year. The template drawings I am doing now are more complex to compose, and wood is less forgiving than paper with its strength of colour and asymmetry of grain. I didn't expect B's gift to present quite such a challenge, but I believe work should be challenging and that problem-solving helps develop an artist's unique voice. I am looking forward to making a whole series of work this way.

While working in the diary of templates this week I have been more mindful of its ruled pages, how I add painted areas of opaque white, and where the paper does or doesn't figure in the image. I am aware that the work on paper is more delicate than this particular one on wood, which is another aspect I would like to address in future; to make the veneers work as delicate, I need to understand my materials as well as I understand them on paper. In the mean time, B was delighted with his card/gift, and had a very happy birthday, which was the most important thing.

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