The Art of Russell Pierce

For this piece on artist Chuck Close, I experimented with a process I had not tried before. The base art was a painting I did of Close on the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil using various apps including Sketch Club and Repix among others. I then output the art on to an aluminum print that measures 22 x 30". Then I made a bunch of acrylic skins. Basically drip the paint onto a sheet of plastic, mix colors with a palette knife then let harden. I experimented by adding metallic pigment powders for an unusual effect. Once hard I peeled them off and placed them on the print sometimes cutting and shaping the skins to blend into the image.

​

The skins have a depth to them depending on how thick the paint is. Some of them stuck out above the print by about a 1/4". I wanted the piece to have a flat surface so I researched various resin products and came across Art Resin. The website has a wealth of information including videos. I found out that the product does work on aluminum and set about adding the resin layer.

​

A lot of work went into this piece and I was nervous I would mess it up at the resin stage being that this was my first time applying resin to a piece. Well, it was amazingly easy. I followed the steps on the video. I purchased the blow torch for popping air bubbles from Art Resin and it worked great. The piece now has a nice flat surface to it and the resin actually unified the piece with a beautiful glossy surface.