Whether it's a sparkling geode with crushed glass and crystals or an ocean inspired piece, Alison creates her resin art to represent earth and water in an abstract way: "When I'm creating an ocean piece, I'm often trying to use the image of water to evoke a feeling, whether that's peacefulness, ferocity, or longing. On the other hand, when I'm creating geodes, I just focus on creating something that is exciting and eye-catching. It's an opportunity to play with colours and glitter and have a lot of fun."
Alison has always considered herself artistic and learned resin art through online video tutorials and old-fashioned trial and error: "I never felt that I was expressing myself the way I wanted to until I started experimenting with resin. Resin opened up a whole new world for me."
Alison loves that, unlike any other medium, resin allows the artist to build layer upon layer, creating depth with various colorants, textures and techniques. She uses birch boards to create her resin art since they have the strength to support the weight of multiple resin layers.
Alison also creates resin coasters using dried flowers and leaves. She loves the freedom and versatility that resin offers, allowing her to be creative without having to be precise: "I just love the shine of it. There’s this way that a piece of resin art just pops that you don’t get with other mediums.
Alison creates cells in her ocean pieces using a heat gun to blend the tinted resin layers together. She achieves depth by adding a second layer of slightly opaque tinted resin overtop of the first coat, and then by adding waves in the top layer: "It’s a really cool effect and I’ve done it as many as four or five times on a piece to create that illusion of deep waters or extra-frothy waves."
For her geodes, she normally pours her first layer, then adds lines with paint pens after 24 hours once the resin has cured. She then pours a second coat of clear resin overtop to seal everything in and create a glossy finish. Alison says: "I tend to use a lot of mica powders and shimmery pigments and there’s just something about glitter that makes me happy, so I hope the viewer enjoys it the way I do and experiences a bit of joy with my pieces."
For Alison, creating resin art provides a unique sense of fulfillment: "Everything I create is so wholly mine. It’s a wonderful feeling. It has also exposed me to a whole community of artists, both in my local area, as well as in the online community through Instagram and Facebook. I feel like there’s a whole new side of me that I’m tapping into that was dormant for so many years. I feel more whole now that I am creating and being creative."
Alison sells her art pieces through a local gallery, The Paris Bohemian Gallery in Paris, Ontario, through her Etsy page and over Instagram and Facebook.
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Visit her Etsy page: www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AlisonGunnArt
Like her on Facebook: @alisongunnart
Congratulations on your win, Alison!
To celebrate our amazing resin artists, every month we send out a 32 oz kit to a couple of folks who have tagged us on Instagram—and then we share their work with the world!
Don't forget, tag YOUR ArtResin work with @art_resin on Instagram, and YOU could be our next winner!!
ArtResin: Made For Artists, By Artists.
