Decalcomania

DECALCOMANIA

Decalcomania is a technique that I have used extensively in my work and which will, subsequently, feature in the exhibition associated with this project.

Here is how to this technique works.

 Maened - Mike Healey

The strange rock formations shown above are created by spreading wet ink (I actually use bone black powder mixed with water) then applying paper, pressing it down and afterwards drawing it back carefully.

With practice you can create amazing shapes. In the above painting I have added a photographic face to turn the shapes into a strange figure.

Yellow Landscape

The above painting used exactly the same technique but the bramble/tree shapes were created with a palette knife. The only two colours used were yellow and black.

You need to work fast for the bone black 'paste' dries quickly.

You also need shiny white paper. Photographic paper is ideal. Although expensive it does not absorb water too readily, allowing you to manipulate the 'ink' on its surface more effectively.

Moroccan Oasis - Mike Healey

If you combine both techniques (pressed paper + palette knife) you can create very interesting images - as in the 'Moroccan oasis' shown above

Once dry, the surface is unstable and will need a spray varnish to fix it. You can use water colour varnish. I use normal hair spray - just as good and a fraction the price!

Blue Landscape

These techniques work equally well in color - in this case,  a thin wash of  blue and black poster paint. In the  landscape below I have painted in the blue sky by hand as a way to define the rock shapes more effectively.

Mountain Curtain

Here (below) is one of the first finished works for the Dionysus Exhibition. 

I have again used decalcomania techniques (first employed by the Surrealists) to create a complex image of three Maenads resting after a ritual 'orgy' of violence.

 Maenads Resting

If you look closely, you can see the bloody remains of a human foot (top right) - all that is left in tact (well, almost!) of the person whom the Maenads tore limb from limb in 
their violent  religious 'frenzy'.

It is generally assumed that the followers of Dionysus were drunk but Robert Graves has argued that it was more likely to have been a much stronger drug. 

Indeed, he suggests that it could have been a raw mushroom - amanita muscario - which 'induces hallucinations, senseless rioting, prophetic sight, erotic energy, and remarkable muscular strength'.

Semele

The above collage also uses decalcomania techniques but is in fact a collage with about three distinct 'layers'. It represents the mother of Dionysus - Semele.

So far I have finished seven paintings for this exhibition - only another 19 to go!  

Watch this space!

Mike Healey