Experimentation + Spraypaint

In my last post I was experimenting with live flowers:

I was attempting to mimic Jess Riva Cooper's art, which is dominantly white ceramic.

Because of this, I was struck with the idea of spraypainting the entire sculpture with white spraypaint. This would (theoretically) leave patches and bursts of colour where the paint did not reach and give an interesting effect.

The beginning effect was interesting.

I also wondered what the sculpture would look like using grey spraypaint, to match the hair (as I didn't want to ruin the wig in this experimental stage).

It didn't work anywhere near as well! Oops.

I hated it.

I removed the wig to avoid further damage.

Disposed of the flowers, and sprayed the mannequin completely white.

I was thrilled with the effect. The shiny white spraypaint gave the illusion that the mannequin was made of ceramics, like Riva Cooper's work.

I added brief spritzes of the grey spraypaint in certain places, as it ran nicely with the wet white paint and created interesting, organic patterns (see the left shoulder).

As soon as the spraypaint was dry, I added artificial flowers.

I was amazed with the outcome! The new white skin poses a completely new contrast to the colours of the flowers and makes them stand out tenfold. They are now the pure focal point of the sculpture.

The flowers emerging from the head in this way remind me of a tropical Latina headdress.

It might be due to the large yellow lilies amongst the tropical colour scheme.

The large petals could almost resemble bananas from a distance.

For experimental purposes, I placed a torch in the head like I have done with each of my experiments so far.

The result was very interesting, especially because the light from the inside illuminated the original paint (eyes, eyebrows + lips) that had been hidden by the white paint in normal lighting.

I expected the flowers to light up more as they are made out of thin plastic like the mannequin.

Although this effect is not something I'm going to be incorporating into my work,

it was interesting to see.