Faux Painting for Tauba Auerbach

In 2014 I assisted New York artist Tauba Auerbach in painting the sides of these books to match the images on the inside pages.

Using watercolours for the first time I devised my own technique to achieve the trompe l’oeil effect. I usually work with oil paints, creating thin glazes and building up layer upon layer with different brushes to create multiple veins and colour variations. I learnt almost immediately that this was not possible with watercolour, especially as I had to keep the amount of liquid to a minimum not to damage the pages of the book. Therefore each and every wood pore and marble vein was painted by hand — one by one.