Manifesting Monet for Baichasca

Continuing the Baichasca Art movement, I spent another fun-filled and creative day with photographer Paul Baichoo and one of our long-suffering models Rosie Fawke (she keeps coming back...I don't know why!).

Baichasca Art was created as a natural outflowing of the obsessive photography testing that goes on constantly in Paul's Waterloo studio. We have spent about a year doing a lot of experimental projects, many veering on the edge of crazy, but we both believe in pushing boundaries and thinking outside of the box. Also, a lot of the inspiration for our work stems from our love of art in general and the desire to create something new that is rooted in tradition.

A year later Baichasca now has a growing portfolio of work and more of a definite direction and motivation. Along with each work, Paul now films the process of creating the piece which has proved to be very popular and a great way for us to go back and assess our methods and progress.

It was very exciting to finally create the Monet inspired piece, which I have personally been quite nervous about as it is an immense challenge. To give the work more dimension I prepared a new bald cap and built texture using papier maché to emulate brush strokes in a more exaggerated and 3D form and give the piece more structure. I then painted the entire bald cap with acrylic paint, applying it in thick daubs and numerous layers.

Rosie was most obliging in having this strange object glued to her face! I also applied torn strips of paper to her cheekbones (using pros-aid which is a prosthetic makeup glue) and extended the acrylic down the sides of her face in this manner. The final blending was done with various shades of MAC Full Cover foundation (I did not buy this, it came with my school makeup kit a long time ago! I don't buy MAC as they are owned by Esteé Lauder who test on animals).

To enhance the painterly nature of the work I applied all the paints and makeup with squared-off artist acrylic brushes.

As always once the piece was completed I thought of a hundred things I could have done differently or better, but that is the nature of experimentation and learning. Overall we were all pleased with the final result.

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