As modern artists constantly seek ways to avoid conventional painting "clichés" by using unusual techniques to apply paint to canvas, the art world is flooded with technical painting mediums that might seem strange to many people. However, some of the most famous artists in the modern art period used many techniques that allowed them to further express their approach to painting. This article examines three of those techniques and the artists who employed them.
Body Painting
Body painting is painting done using portions of the body rather than a paint brush. Paint is applied to the body part and then pressed or slapped against the canvas to create shapes. While some artists choose to add material to these paintings (using more conventional techniques), others choose to make their works of art completely through body painting methods. Angel Tolentino used this method by pressing her breasts against a canvas to create art. According to Tolentino, she watched her sister using sponges to apply paint to a painting and wondered if she could do the same thing with her breasts.
The American artist, Stan Murmur used a similar technique by employing his posterior to apply paint to his canvases. Formerly an art teacher at Monacan High School in Virginia, Murmur was dismissed from his post when he appeared on a television interview demonstrating his painting technique. By using the shapes made by his posterior to build into different objects, Murmur created full paintings of often unrelated subject material.
Elephant Dung
The British artist Chris Ofili became famous (or perhaps infamous) when he presented his painting "The Holy Virgin Mary" in 1999 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This painting depicted the biblical virgin Mary surrounded by pornographic images and cherubs created from elephant dung. This painting sparked enormous controversy in New York City. However, this was not the first time that Ofili had used elephant dung to create a painting. The 1998 work "No Woman No Cry" was placed on rolled and hardened lumps of dung during every exhibit.
Explosive Paint Cartridges
Salvador Dali often used explosive cartridges to literally fire paint at a canvas and create unusual shapes. "Tuna Fishing," created in 1966 and 1967, is a good example of this method. These methods were usually used for background material or strange objects within the subject matter. In addition, he is often cited as having filled his mouth with paint and spat it onto the canvas during his earlier career. Although he was one of the first to use this technique, many modern artists continue to copy this technique to this day.
