Over at Slamseys, the Creative Summer Challenge is in full swing. The aim of the challenge is to have fun, perhaps involving children over the school holidays or just making some time for yourself as you let go of any insecurities you might have about your artistic talent and focus on enjoying the process.
This year, the Challenge is to make a regular habit of being creative with a suggestion every weekday for things you might do. Day Two of the challenge was Making a Mark, a wonderfully liberating exercise in adding a wash of colour to paper and then flicking, dribbling and blowing paint and ink. An activity that involves absolutely no skill but a degree of messiness and haphazard results. Right up my street.
In a serendipitous twist, on the day of that post, I was at a collage workshop with Mark Hearld, which involved a great deal of mark making with paste paint to use in our collages. In fact, that was probably the bit I enjoyed most about the day as my dexterity with scissors leaves much to be desired.
I first tried Paste Painting as a youngster (it’s in the book Fun with Art by Martin & Cherille Mayhew) and later used it on MDF to make ploughed fields as part of a farmyard set for my children. One summer holiday we spent a very happy afternoon puddling about with paste paint and I remember one of the children doing a wonderful bowl of spaghetti picture. Since then, it’s another of those techniques that I’ve tried and dismissed. Until now! I have a new found enthusiasm and have been making a pile of decorated papers.
Paste papers were originally used by bookbinders as end papers and for covers. The paste paint is made from a mixture of flour and water, which is then brushed or spread onto paper and marks made with fingers, scrapers, combs and any number of other items to form a pattern. I used dry copy paper, brown paper and (plain) newsprint for my first experimentation but heavier paper may need to be dampened first.
At the workshop, the paste was made with strong flour but as we have someone in the family with coeliac disease (a bit of a downer for a family that grows wheat!) who may give paste painting a go, I used cornflour and it worked just as well. In fact, I think the cornflour gives a slight sheen to the paper. The recipe is at the bottom of the page.
When you’re ready to use your paste, put a couple of tablespoons into a small bowl or plastic pot and mix in some acrylic paint or artist’s ink. It’s a bit trial and error for amounts but I started with a small squirt of acrylic paint and added more paste or colour as needed.
Use a wide brush (I used a cheap set of decorator’s brushes) to brush the paste paint onto your paper generously, going both crossways and lengthways. Then take your marking tool of choice and drag it across the paper to make a mark. You can leave it as it is or repeat with another colour. on top. The pattern above was made with two card combs. One was cut with wide teeth and the other cut with pinking shears.
These marks were made with a rubber tipped paint brush (brown paper).
Brush on the colour, fold the paper in half and prod with your fingertips. Additional marks were made with a broad tipped cotton bud.
A light blue coat was covered with a darker blue and the dark blue lifted off with scrunched up newspaper.
This time the paste paint was dabbed onto the paper with a piece of scrunched up newspaper. It would make a great background to a collage. Stormy sky? Crashing waves?
Making these papers is so easy and by the end of a session you’ll have a heap of wonderfully textured and patterned paper. Let’s be honest, it’s only a small step up from finger painting.
Leave the papers to dry but don’t stack them one on top of another because they’ll stick together. If you use thin paper, it may curl up at the edges as it dries. This doesn’t matter if you’re using it for collage as it will flatten when you spread PVA glue onto it, but you could press it under something heavy or iron it.
How to Make Paste Paint
Ingredients
1 part flour or cornflour
6.5 parts water
Directions
1. Measure the flour into a saucepan and slowly stir in the water.
2. Heat it gently, stirring all the time, until the mixture comes to the boil. Simmer for about a minute, still stirring and you should have a thick sauce-like mixture.
3. Pour it into a bowl and cover with a circle of baking parchment or a tight fitting lid and leave to cool. Pop it in the fridge if you’re leaving it overnight.
4. When you’re ready to use it, give the mixture a good stir to get rid of any lumps or whizz it with a stick blender if it’s very lumpy. It should be the consistency of mayonnaise, so you may need to add a little water.
5. If you don’t use it all in one go, store it in the fridge and use within a few days before it goes mouldy.
Give it a go!
Read more about the 2019 Summer Creative Challenge at Slamseys.
LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS 
How very, very exciting! I am planning to have a session. Yours are stunning.
thank you 🙂
These are really attractive and so much happens both deliberately and by chance. Interesting. I may try it, since I have a recipe…
I love things with the element of chance – mainly because I’m not very good at planning. Do have a go, it’s fun.