When working on my abstract pieces, I sometimes incorporate natural materials into the piece to provide texture or color. Natural materials aren’t without their drawbacks—they can be fragile and may degrade quickly. Colors can fade. They can attract pests.  They’re often terribly non-archival. They’re potentially a future conservator’s nightmare!

That being said, natural materials have their uses. You just need to keep in mind what you are trying to achieve with your artwork.  A few years back I created a series of twelve 3-D mixed media ‘paintings’ that I called my “Elementals” series. There were 3 paintings in the series for each of the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. One of the ‘earth’ paintings, titled “The Green Man”, included moss, lichen, and pinecones.

Most of the paintings in this series weren’t planned out beforehand. Rather, I decided which element I was trying to portray, grabbed a canvas, and then pretty much just played with the materials until the piece felt done. It was a fun series to work on because I never knew quite what to expect for the final result.  For The Green Man, I had a bunch of natural materials on hand and so I started with those.

The moss and lichen I had gotten at a craft store, so it was pre-cleaned, sanitized and dried. The pinecones I collected from outside. I laid everything out on the canvas and moved things around until I liked the way it looked. To attach everything, I used an acrylic soft gel medium—this stuff makes a great glue in this type of situation! It’s thick enough to fill in gaps and make a good, strong bond and it remains flexible once dry; an important consideration when working with organic materials, since they will flex, shrink and swell with changes in humidity.

When I need to build up height or thickness or need more support for something, I use a lightweight acrylic molding paste. You can also use regular molding paste, which is denser and stronger, but also quite a bit heavier. I usually use the lightweight one to keep the overall weight of the piece down and since I typically am not trying to support anything Really heavy on the canvas.  

After getting the composition set and ‘gluing’ everything in place, I used acrylic paints to finish off the piece. I also painted over the moss and lichen with the gel medium to help keep the pieces from breaking and crumbling over time. Overall, The Green Man does what I intended it to do and fits with the rest of the series, so I consider that a success!

What about you? Do you ever incorporate natural materials into your artwork? How do you combine them with more traditional art materials?