Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rockface




Abstract painting allows a level of freedom that can be hard to deal with if one is coming from another, tighter style. Today’s post illustrates that well for me.

Rockface was done in two sessions. At first the underlying cooler colors (blue, violet, grey and black) were laid down in a rough manner. The idea was just to get the canvas covered. Once this was dry, the warmer (yellow, red, and orange) paints were applied thickly with different sized knives. Lightly grazing the paint-loaded knife across the previous dry layer is a perfect method to reveal unpredictable textures and shapes. While working the second layer two things happened. First, craggy shapes began to appear almost as if on their own. Second, I could feel the temptation to keep working the paint growing with each stroke! As any artist knows, the latter is the surest enemy of beautiful vibrant color. Fortunately, I was able to stop before ending up with a lot of mud on the canvas.

Rockface, Acrylic on canvas board, 18”X24”, $350 (Unframed)

4 comments:

  1. I know - that feel of palette laden with paint skimming across colors and the new colors that emerge! I like this painting "Rockface" - very vibrant.
    Judy

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  2. I love "Rockface". Such a warm colours!

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  3. This is a very interesting painting, somedays I just have the neeed to push paint around, wherever it wants to be and see what develops. Looks great!

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  4. I adore this painting, the vibrancy of the color and only wish I could see some of the texture in it. Gorgeous!

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