Have You Ever Stopped to Notice?

When you think of paintings, I bet you typically think they’re done using either acrylic or oil on canvas or wood panels. But there are so many different materials artists use.

I know I typically do.

So when I visited Washington, D.C., several weeks ago and meandered through all the top museums on the National Mall I paid close attention to some details.

And that is what materials were used in the paintings.

Next to each painting there is a small plaque that describes the artist and all the materials they used in the work displayed.

I went up to so many of these plaques looking specifically for as many unusual materials as I could discover.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Let me just give you a detailed list of what I found:

Paint, crayon, ballpoint pen and marker on found papers and boards pasted to a coloring book. (Purvis Young)

Paint on plywood. (Mary T. Smith)

Found wood, plastic tubing, window screen, wire, epoxy putty, aluminum foil, and enamel on wood. (Thornton Dial)

Wool, cotton, and corduroy. (a quilt by Gee’s Bend)

Oil on linen. (Robert Ryman)

Acrylic and blue pencil on canvas. (Agnes Martin)

Burlap soaked in plaster painted with enamel. (Claes Oldenburg)

Oil and charcoal on canvas. (Helen Frankenthaler)

Oil and varnish with sand and dry pigment on paper mounted on canvas. (Jean Fautrier)

Collage on canvas. (Mimmo Rotella)

Lead box, mirrors, steel hook, plaster casts and acrylic vitrine. (Robert Morris)

Latex over cheesecloth. (Eva Hesse)

Acrylic on paper on canvas. (Jean Dubuffet)

Jean Dubuffet was one of my favorites. Even though his materials weren’t that unusual, there were so many really interesting and different paper pieces glued onto the canvas.

Another standout to me was the piece by Eva Hesse. Even though it isn’t a painting, I love the concept of using cheesecloth and latex.

I’m definitely going to get some cheesecloth and experiment with it.

And one last mention is the work by Mimmo Rotella whose piece was just collage on canvas, but it looked like he did a lot of distressing of the collage papers, which I love.

So, the next time you’re out and about in either a gallery or museum, I encourage you to pay close attention to the materials the artists used in creating the artwork.

And maybe you’ll discover something you want to play around with in your next creation.

The aluminum foil also sounded interesting to try!!

* Click HERE to learn about the Art with Adele Academy.

* Click HERE to get my FREE minicourse, “Kickstart Your Abstract Painting.”