Painting with Powertex
Painting with Powertex Universal Medium is great if you like to use mixed media, texture or structure. This liquid medium behaves as a heavy paint, adhesive and hardener. Here are some ideas for using Powertex to create paintings on canvas.
Powertex, Stone Art and dry pigments
Start out with a bottle of Ivory Powertex Universal Medium, Stone Art and a few pigment powders. Paint the liquid onto the surface unevenly. Apply the dry textures directly to the wet Powertex in thin layers. I wore gloves and pressed the powders into the surface.
My first experiment with Powertex on canvas was shallow textures and muted colours. I really love the colour blends and light textures from this technique.
With these shallow textures I was beginning to see how the materials worked and what could be possible.
Why use Powertex medium?
I use texture and other media in my painting and Powertex has some unique properties. Here’s a reminder:
- Powertex Universal Medium is a fabric hardener, adhesive and paint for sculpture and textured art.
- The adhesive quality of Powertex is strong enough to support almost anything from heavy collage, fabric and plaster to wood and metal layers. Use with natural fibres for best results.
- Powertex has a slow drying time which allows lots of time to experiment.The open time is about 1 hour.
- It’s hardwearing and weatherproof for creating outdoor sculpture or art.
Here are some examples of textured art I have created using Powertex products.
Add colour with Bister, dry pigments or acrylic
Blend different colours of Powertex medium directly on canvas, board or heavy card for an interesting background. Add colour with Powertex Bister ink sprays and powdered pigments such as Powertex Powercolor.
Your acrylic inks, paint and sprays are also compatible. These don’t usually mix well into Powertex medium but acrylic will adhere to a Powertex base. Here’s some more about using acrylic with Powertex. Oil based products are not compatible with Powertex Universal Medium.
Add texture
With the exception of plastic, almost anything can be used as texture with Powertex. Layer fibres, papers, textiles, cork, leather and wood or Powertex texture mediums.
The range of Powertex texture products such as Stone Art, Rusty Powder, 3d Sand and Easy Structure are developed to be compatible with Powertex. Try Easy 3d Flex and Powerwax for advanced techniques.
Powertex Stone Art is a dry paper powder that can be adhered to a surface and sculpted when mixed with Powertex.
Rusty Powder is an iron based powder that rusts when combined with vinegar. The strong adhesive Properties of Powertex allow the rust to be adhered to many surfaces.
3d Sand is a fine absorbent sand developed to mix into a liquid adhesive to add texture.
Easy Structure is a heavy texture paste that can hold high textures and is hard wearing when dry.
Mixed Media Powertex art techniques to try
- Create a textured surface with Easy Structure paste with shaped tools or a stencil and paint with Powertex when dry.
- Use two different colours of Powertex and mix them into each other on your surface.
- Adhere torn pieces of corrugated card, heavy handmade papers or fabric to add texture.
- Add 3d sand to Rusty Powder mixtures for authentic rust textures.
- Press Stone Art into wet Powertex for a softer surface and build up layers for a “stone” effect.
- Use Powertex and fabric to sculpt on a flat surface.
Don’t forget if you’re in the UK you can get your supplies here. (As a Powertex tutor, this is where I buy my supplies.)
If you are new to Powertex you may want to read this or browse these blogs for some more ideas of what Powertex can do.
