Although it looks like something only Cezanne could do, artist Leesa Martling created a trompe l'oeil plate display using muslin, cut-and-paste images, and some clever painting.
Tromp l'oeil is a centuries-old French painting technique that means "fool the eye." Here's the procedure for creating a plate display:
Decide what sizes and shapes you want for the "plates" by holding shapes and/or plates up to the wall. Establish a focal point and a pattern-in this case a pyramid shape.
Pick plates and even soup bowls from the cupboard to use as a template. Remember , the shape doesn't have to be round.
- Trace the plate shapes onto muslin, which absorbs paint well and won't wrinkle , tear, or bubble when you put it on the wall.
- Paint the muslin shapes with primer to stiffen them.
- Find a book that has "cut and paste" images that you can envision on a plate-botanicals , for example. You can usually find image books at the art-supply store; home stores are also good places to start looking for the book.
- Cut the image you want from the book, and slather wallpaper paste liberally on the back, covering the whole piece.
- Apply to the muslin template, pressing down on the center with a rag and making sure to wipe off any paste that escapes from underneath the image.
- Paint a "rim" around the plate by using a smaller, same-shape plate as a template .
- Once the images are on the muslin piece to your satisfaction, apply it to the wall with wallpaper paste.
- Then start creating the shadows to give it a three-dimensional look. First, shade where the shadow would naturally fall from the available light source. Using Payne 's gray translucent watercolor, "pull the paint around" the rim and then softly smear it to look shadowy.
- On the opposite side of the shadow, do the same thing outside the plate, with a darker color-one that looks more like the wall than the "plate." In this case Martling added a little olive green to the Payne's gray she used for the shadow.
For a "blue plate" look: To achieve a similar look without cutting images, consider using a period-style fabric such as a toile, and cutting plate-size templates from it. Then size it with primer, brushing white paint right over the front, so you can still see the images through a white sheen. Let it dry, paint the "rim" white, and then attach and shadow as you would the muslin "plates," only with lighter colors .
)
