Ford Model T Underpainting ACEO

This is going to be a double experimental piece for me. 

Firstly, I've never painted on plasterboard (my own DIY attempt at recreating clay-board, that I recently heard about and wanted to try ( I've never seen them sold here, so I just mixed some plaster of Paris with PVA glue in to a syrupy concoction and laid it on board. Didn't bother about getting it smooth for I wanted to try a more textured surface)).

Watercolour pencil & W&N Ultramarine Watercolour on Plasterboard.
Size: 2.5 In x 3.5 In

Secondly, I came across Maxfield Parrishs unique glazing technique (glazed layers of oil separated by varnish, which was usually laid over a blue under-painting) and decided I really had to try it out!!

So here's the initial blue under-painting in watercolour which will be alternately varnished and glazed over with oil paint. 

I wished to create a more conceptual piece for my ACEO this time too and decided to do one on a theme that has been on the back burner now for more than 10 years, but which seems more clearly impending now than ever... Part of which was the exploration of time and man as a robotised tool in the beginning of the industrialized era (and now). Henry Ford who was very much one of the pioneers of mass production and the assembly line in the making of his first car the Model T, revolutionized the manufacturing system of the time. Technology was incorporated as a tool to improve the social mobility of his labor force (besides lowering production costs etc..) and his 'Fordism' aspirations took in to account (basically) the well-being of society as a whole..

Now the exploration of what this means to us now in this age of advanced technology where mechanization is ever more taking over the role of humans (like it or not) and where that leaves us as a society is one that that many are still grappling with.. It will be nothing short of culture shifting and hopefully we will make the transition smoothly if we take a page from Henry Ford, with a more global, sustainable outlook.. 'The Zeitgeist Movement' has a prescient train of thought on this...

Anyways, too long for here, this is a reoccurring theme in my work in various forms and I'm glad to finally actualize this dimension of it in this piece!..