Decalcomania

Decalcomania is a painting technique, used by many abstract painters such as Max Ernst and Remedios Varo, which is used to create striated textures of unique aesthetic appeal. A decalcomania consists of separating two flexible sheets, between which fluid paint had been placed. As the flexible sheets are detached and the paint retracts from its original edge, finger-like striae are formed. The technique holds a certain similarity to that used to test adhesive materials and to the Saffman-Taylor instability. To fully understand the process, we recreate it in a controlled manner. We used an experimental setup consisting of two transparency sheets, which separate angularly from each at a controlled rate. The process is filmed with a high-speed camera. The separation speed and fluid properties are varied, to determine their effect on the pattern formation and the produced texture. We present and discuss preliminary results of this study.