WINE PAINTING PROJECT
THE INVESTIGATION
Wine painting sprung from an experiment in Mendoza’s studio, República Argentina, land of vineyards and with a strong viticulture tradition. The first experience was interesting, then other trials, technical tests and different wine combinations have been added. Today the project is about ten years and it continues growing.
THECHNICAL
The resource material is made out of red wines(directly from the bottle, boild ¿?, taken from the bottom of the barrel or extracted in lab) mixed with organic agglutinants(orange oil-milk oil-beewax-turpentine-etc).
For the final protection I use a special burnish that is also organic. I usually paint on canvas.
COLOR AND TEXTURE
The range colour goes from earth coloured (bottom of the barrel), going through greys (wine poured directly from the bottle, like a wine stain on a table cloth), rubies (grape skin extracted), violets(young wines), to blacks (wine shoot charcoal).
The texture goes from the lightest to the thickest. From the fluidity of the liquid wine to paste of the bottom of the barrel mixed with the organic agglutinant
THEMAMATIC
At the beginning of the project the images were mainly abstract with the colour and the shapes as the main subject .
In a natural process starting from fortuitous wine spots kept emerge oniric figures from the wine world.
Some pictures are framed with staves of barrel (in small and large size) screw together in its four corners and with the canvas stretched from behind by tacks.
This kind of framing is not only functional (because it works both as frame and as stretcher strips) it is also a symbol, because the vintage continues between the wine and the oak. Both as visual components.
The canvas stretched on the four strips takes naturally the four curves of the staves.
It produces a special bending effect that allows it to come out of the regular bidimensional state of a canvas.
OTHER PIECES
They are assemblages of found and selected pieces of wineceller, mainly woods and barrel tops that structure a sculptural piece with the adding of oil painting, collage, papier-mâché, thorns, horns, metal, etc…
These recycled wood assemblages symbolize the handcraft work of the old wine cellars.
