Adding rice to a Relief

I set my students the theme ‘Create a Relief emphasising Rice festival in Japan’. The work had to contain rice somewhere, but no stipulation of how much rice was to be used. The result was my students executed Relief works with anything from lots of rice down to one grain.

Having set this challenge I thought it only fair I do the same. Keeping my work small – a challenge in its self for me as I really prefer to do large works.

Working with two painting canvases angled and separated to give depth (though it may not look like it) I used the black canvas a to the back to give the feeling of depth – remember dark colours recede and light colours come forward. For my rice element I glued white rice to randomly curved wires for movement and unusual shadows across the relief. The work needed colour so red lines were added giving the work a dramatic appearance

Separating the canvases so I created depth (it may not look like)