Elin Pendleton paints on dual-etched mirrored glass

Oh Wow. Hard to describe what my brushes did today--this imagery doesn't do it justice. Therefore there are FIVE images in today's posting to try to convey the dynamics of this painting on etched mirror glass, etched on both sides. The first image on the right is the mirrored glass which has been sand blasted on both sides in an interesting pattern, neither side a duplicate of the other, but similar. You can see it especially in the horse's ears where my painting on the backside comes through but is covered by the etching on the front surface.

How to describe this? The mirrored parts of the image CONSTANTLY change as one walks by the image. The horse head is constant, unless lit from behind, when the image takes on another character entirely! The first image is outside, with the vegetation reflecting in the mirror. YES, it is a PAINTING. But on glass!

This is the first of three I did this afternoon--this one a commission for Ron Wood's client of his horse. Simple in design, but elegant and modern in presentation. The Color System painted it, of course, and I used traditional acrylics. Technically this painting is a warm-up for the big commissioned sample coming up this week. I have the glass pieces here in my studio, and will be painting them tomorrow, in between the wolf painting DVD. Busy as a one-armed paper hanger!

The second image with the brown border is the back side of the mirror, which is not to be viewed. The brown portions are the mirrored backside area. I had fun painting the eye! The next image is the original etched mirror, before I started painting on it. Here it is backlit, almost a black and white image.

You can see that the eye area was nothing more than an apricot-shaped white etched area before the brushes hit it. The black areas are the mirror. Talk about having to adjust and THINK about values as I painted it! The mirror changes the painting at every viewing. Look at this next image, taken indoors with the dining area reflected in it--a whole new painting! Almost like a collage, and yet it is the same piece of mirrored glass.

And not to be saying that one can paint one painting and get infinite variations, however look at what it turned into when I put it outside and photographed it with the blue sky on the mirrored image.

This is an incredibly creative way to make art, and I'm excited to continue to work with Ron Wood on his projects, using my brushes on his elegant sand blasted and laser etched glass.

One painting, infinite display and showing options!
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