New Painting: “Two Blocks of Wood with Nails”
Finished up a new painting last week. It’s been a while since I’ve painted, but it felt good to get back into it. This particular piece had been started last year – just never got around to finishing it. Not sure why, but I felt inspired the other night and decided to take a swing at it.
The two pieces of 2×4’s in the center came from a pile of wood my Dad gave me as part of his winemaking equipment. He would stack up these blocks of wood in his wine press as he crushed and pressed the grapes. Some of the red discoloring on them is probably from the grapes.
The painting measure 36″ H x 48″ W. I used a plastering technique I taught myself last summer over top of most of the surface. House paint was used for the colors along with roofing tar around the blocks of wood. Rusty nails protrude from the wood with some copper wire wrapped around a few of them. And the four things in the corners are carriage bolts.
A detail of one of the four carriage bolts:

Another detail of the right side block and the “S” that was on it:




April 16th, 2008 at 8:59 am
What a cool way to memorialize your Dad’s wine-making days!
January 7th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
That’s a really clever and unique piece. I love mixed media work myself. I wouldn’t have thought to use such raw materials as house paint, tar, and roofing nails in collaboration with a painting in such an effective way. Very nice!
September 4th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi Dom,
Amazing, nice painting. Would lke to add myself to your update (newsletter) list.
Just for your info even I do some painting, I am waiting for some spare time to upload them on my website. Can you suggest some good idea to start this. Is Blogging a good idea or should I buy a domain and some webspace.
Keep in touch,
Bye for now
Anil S
(+91 976 400 1030)