Blue Waves in a Shell

You know that people say you can hear the sea if you press your ear to a shell? Well, I've just created a shell in which you can see the sea! It's not pretty, I'l grant you that, but I had great fun in the process of making it. Brendan gave me a book about acrylics for Christmas, in an effort to encourage me to try a medium different from watercolours, which have been my paint of choice so far. I've dabbled in acrylics, but I haven't really explored what you can do with them. This book is called "The New Acrylics" by Rheni Tauchid, and it explores what you can do with new acrylic paints and media. Well, I had to try it, of course, and I went to the Art and Hobby Shop and got myself a big jar of Structure Gel which will help you "create impasto structure with good peak retention" (their words on the jar, not mine!).


I mixed a few dollops of blue and yellow acrylic paint with plenty of the gel and I applied to a piece of paper. The result was a shiny three-dimensional painting. Not great, but interesting to see how shiny it is compared with plain acrylics.


But then, I had to take it a step further, I grabbed an old shell that was sitting on the window sill, I mixed tons of gel with a tiny amount of process cyan, and I filled the shell, using a plastic knife, shaping it into rolling waves. It's really tacky. To make it even worse, I'm thinking of adding a tiny 2-dimensional picture of a surfer on top when it's dry. That could be weeks from today, mind you. The book says that a very thick gel application can take months to cure fully. Right now, the gel is still white in most places, indicating that it's not dry yet. It becomes transparent when it's dry. Of course, Brendan didn't know this when he poked at it earlier today and found himself with blue gel on his hands!