Painted Any Frescoes Lately?

Cafe Society
1

Never thought I’d like this, but I took my daughter to a “Kid’s Art Day” thing and one of their projects was little frescoes.

All the lady did was mix up some plaster of Paris and slap it on masonite about 1/8" thick, and then give it to the kids to paint on while it was still damp. Just a little dryer than press-it-and-easily-make-a-fingerprint.

She let me do one, too, using their el cheap watercolor paint. I thought it was a blast and wished I had some better pigments with me.

It seemed to me like it would still work somewhat even when it was dry, like the plaster would accept more watercolor? But maybe not. I was surprised that I had plenty of time to work before it dried, and could even re-work the surface a little, blending colors.

Anybody else tried this?

2

Here’s what it looks like, just a quickie portrait of my daughter as she was painting. The surface was kind of lumpy, although I don’t think I can lay the entire blame for the Pinocchio effect on poor materials. :stuck_out_tongue:

I was surprised that those cheap Prange watercolors could be somewhat vivid.

3

Technical dork answer: on wet plaster it’s true fresco, buon fresco, while on dry plaster it’s fresco secco. Secco ages more poorly-- the paint flakes off, while if it’s buon the pigment really get absorbed and becomes part of the plaster. I think it should be very hard to blend the colors. As you also recall, for example, Big Leo did some experimentation with a mix of true, dry, and oils in Milan and it’s completely fucked up in the long run. I think that back in the day they wouldn’t attempt to do much more of the surface than you did in your portrait within a given day, just adding a small section of wet plaster each morning to work through (see the “giornos” in Giotto, for example)

[caveat-- I haven’t done it-- I’m just a nerd, as you know. I met a fella at an art program who did a summer research gig in CA at an old school fresco-painting program-- it’s really quite a complicated and delicate medium, but might be very rewarding to work in. I’m jealous.]

4

Sheit, don’t be jealous (of him or me) - just getcherself some plaster of Paris and some masonite and go to town! I know you HAVE to have some watercolor paints stashed somewhere! Crocuses are calling!

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, capybara.

That whole “art that will last 500 years” business puzzles me - don’t we already have a lot of toxic waste in this country? Why add to it? Planned obsolescence!

Or, hey, maybe artists should start painting on pop bottles, since they’ll be around anyway.

Another medium that’s surprisingly fun is tempera paint. Not the good stuff w/egg, the cheap stuff from Hobby Lobby. Buck fifty a pint. I needed to do 6 large paintings for a concert (a la Pictures at an Exhibition) and had about a month to get it done. So oils were out (plus that would’ve cost way too much). I never did get the hang of acrylics (plus there’s the $$ issue) and watercolor? That scale? Seen from the back of the audience? Don’t think so.

So I bought a dozen pints of poster paint and had the guy at Lowes cut some masonite to 2’ x 4’. Covered the bumpy side with gesso, put on Isaac Hayes and pulled out some textbooks for inspiration. Our concert had a Halloween theme and I thought it would be fun to do homages to great works - the first one was “Starry Night on Bald Mountain.” Get it? Nyuck nyuck. Big skulls in the front, van Gogh’s skyline in the back.

Anyway, I was amused.

We also played a song about a witch, I forget which witch, but I didn’t feel like making her ugly so instead I copied Sargent’s Madame X and propped a broom up against the wall. Oh, and turned her table into a furnace - guess she must’ve been Hansel and Gretl’s nemesis, that must’ve been what we played.

Another song was a waltz with Death, I can’t remember the name but it was lovely. So I put Degas’ ballerina center-stage. I was going to have Degas playing the role of Death, standing alongside her, but my friend who stopped by to check out my work wanted to know why Death had such a fat ass. Changed him to a skinny Grim Reaper instead.

Well, the whole thing was a TON of fun, didn’t cost much, and didn’t create a nasty cleanup/fume problem.