Beautiful experiments

Working on these experimental mini paintings has been a lot of fun. These pieces all have one material in common: paper towels. Defective paper towels, to be specific. Something must have gone wrong in the Viva factory the day mine were manufactured because the ones I picked up shed lint everywhere. My refund from Target paid for a replacement, but I decided to keep the linty paper towels so I could make art with them. I was initially considering running them through a blender with some water to make pulp and my own handmade paper, or even papier mâché. But then I decided to try something else. 

I used them to create textured surfaces and painted them with my inks and watercolors. I was impressed with how thirstily they absorb water-based media.

After I finished painting them, I sealed them with acrylic varnish. 

I have really enjoyed the process and am pleased to have some new work to sell at my in-person events. Now that I see what I can do with this material at a smaller scale, I look forward to incorporating it into larger works. That's the beauty of experimenting with miniature artwork.