Pigmented Lime Plaster on Poplar

In 2016, Fels began experimenting with the ancient Italian fresco technique of producing paintings with plaster and integrated pigment. He obtains lime plaster from the renowned Calce Viva plasterworks in Puglia, where the lime is cooked in wood-fired ovens and aged in settling ponds for four years. For each of his panels, Fels uses three grades of the plaster, working from granular to extra-fine. The plaster is applied to poplar, a remarkably lightweight and stable wood, and the substrate used by artists for altarpieces in the Renaissance, 700 years ago.

The lightfast pigments are applied mixed in thin coats of plaster; each panel may have as many as half a dozen layers, each tinted differently. The tones mix in the eye as the layers are seen through one another. No brush painting is involved, various spatulas are used to work the plaster during the short window of time before it sets up.