Glue Art on Canvas with Watercolors

We’ve been experimenting with various glue effects on canvas with watercolor art.

The first was an accident, really.

The girls and I each made a collage with small items such as buttons, beads, paper butterflies, etc. After the glue was dry, Daphne and I painted our canvases with liquid watercolor paint.

And the glue concentrated the color rather than resisting it.

In working with glue on paper, I had come to expect glue to act as a resist. But on canvas it was doing the opposite. Why?

When I stopped to think about it, I thought that maybe the nature of the canvas allows the watercolor to travel along the canvas more easily and that it pools under the glue. But when I turned the canvas art over, I could see white spots and lines where the glue was.

I’m not sure why this interesting effect is happening with glue and watercolor on canvas but Daphne and I have been playing around with it.

We each made some glue art on canvas.

Note :: We’ve been using stretched canvases (like these, although I bought mine locally). I think it would work on canvas panels as well, but am not completely sure.

I made a quick glue sketch of flowers and grasses.

Daphne made an abstract glue artwork.

We let our glue art dry.

And then we painted over them with liquid watercolors. And, since I’m low on colors at the moment, I made our own blue and yellow liquid watercolors with watered down food coloring. (Why didn’t I think of doing that before?!)

I painted my canvas, covering the entire area, including glue lines, with liquid watercolor paint. And sprinkled salt in some areas for the beautiful salt effect.

Daphne started painting her canvas but then said she wanted to splatter paint hers. (She and her canvas were immediately transported outside.)

As I painted, and especially as the paint dried, I noticed it doing the same thing—concentrating and darkening the glue lines and glue areas.

The effect is so neat!

I can’t wait to explore this more.

Do you know why the glue seems to concentrate the watercolor paint when used on canvas? If so, please enlighten me!

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