Trying a New Material

My friend Carrol Wolf gave me a large (28 x 40) piece of Terra Skin, a new "paper" made out of stone (ground up calcium carbonate plus binders) that is supposed to save trees and be biodegradable. Today I tried watercolor painting on it.

I never got the hang of Yupo, and this surface is a little like it, though it seems like the paint sticks to it a little better than to Yupo. I found I could easily glaze over other colors that had been allowed to dry completely, without disturbing the underlying color. It is easy to make fascinating textures on Terra Skin and to get hypnotized watching the colors mingle. It is extremely easy to lift color, even staining Prussian blue, down to the white. 

Masking tape stuck too well to the Terra Skin, and it was very difficult to remove, so if, like me, you like to tape your paper to a board, this may be a problem.

Anyway, I didn't like the resulting painting, so I decided to wash all the paint off. Most of it came off under running water, and even staining colors came off with a soapy sponge and a little scrubbing. Even pencil marks washed off. I wondered whether washing with soap would affect the surface, but apparently not, since I did some tests with additional watercolors on it and it behaved the same as before. 

It would appear that one could paint for years without ever buying any more paper or Terra Skin at all!

Taos Before Spring

Same Sheet after Washing