Sprouted Sweet Corn 4

Sprouted Sweet Corn 4

16 1/2 x 11 15/16 x 1 1/2 inches

Steel Siding, Wood, Oil Pastel

It's been . . . a while since I've posted a finished/framed painting. I finished this painting a while ago, but getting into the wood shop to construct the frame has proven to be a challenge for several months now. Yesterday I spent the whole day in there and hammered out this frame so that I could finally call this piece complete. 

The sprouted kernel of sweet corn is painted on a gessoed piece of steel siding. It's been a while since I've worked on siding and it was fun getting up close and personal with this while I was taking measurements for the mount and frame. I rough up the siding a bit and then I paint on a layer or two of clear gesso with a nice, grainy texture that provides a good tooth for the oil pastel. 

I love the texture that it adds to the painting.

I also really like the ripples in the steel siding. It's nice when I can line up elements of the composition with the ripples in the siding. 

The mount and frame are made of recycled wood. The mount which you cannot see is made from pallet wood and the frame is made from lath boards.

All of the lath boards with the gray color were recovered from our dining room ceiling when we replaced it several years ago.  I saved most of those boards and then used some of them to build a compost bin that I put next to my garden for seven years. I stopped putting kitchen scraps into it a few years ago when we found a round plastic compost bin. I finally got around to taking it out this year. I dismantled it and put all of the useable boards in the freezer for a few days to ensure that there would be no pest infestation. Even though it looks to be in pretty bad shape, there are actually many useable boards here. I love that they are finding a third life in a work of art. 

A few of the boards even have some lichen on them and if you ask me they add a nice, natural pop of color and texture. 

The lath boards that are more tan in tone came from a house that my cousin remodeled two years ago and he was gracious enough to save a couple of bundles of boards for me. 

The organic look of this frame seems fitting for the growing kernel of corn. I used simple construction to build it. Since the most recent use of the boards was as a compost bin I felt that was the most appropriate solution. I used new screws to make the mount, but the rest of the frame was constructed using recycled nails. I save all the nails I pull out of the pallets and lath boards. Some of the nails come out straight and some come out bent, but I figure I can probably find a use for the them all at some point.