This is a first in my series of "works in progress" with myself. A way to document and think about and share the process of painting. This work is an interesting piece. I started it actually with the large navy blue dark brush work about 2 years ago! It has been on my wall in my basement for that long just waiting and waiting to get worked on.
Last week, I went crazy with the patterned roller from The Painted House (Etsy shop) which is so much fun to play with. And then my colors right now are out of the bottle copper, ochre, .......
This piece definitely has quite a bit to go but taking close ups of some of the work as it goes along is always a lot of fun. My favorite stages of a painting are these pre-middle-to-middle stages where layers are starting to overlap and play with each other. So much of this type of painting method relies on intuitive marks and the "accidental" or spontaneous, unplanned marks. It's a weird balance between initiating the layer but then knowing "when to stop!"
My favorite part of this painting too is that the paint just does what it wants too. The uncontrolled nature is what is exciting. You start the process but have no control of the final outcome. These drips and drops above exemplify the juiciness of this type of painting with lots of water (my background is watercolor). And of course you cannot deny the power of gravity with the drops dripping "down" because the piece is hanging on the wall. That seems pretty obvious, but nothing is "obvious" when it comes to painting. This is a decision I specifically made here. I could've not have drops, therefore not put that much water so it effectively drips down. I could've easily just put the whole thing on the ground and let the water "pool." So it is a deliberate decision, but how the water drips is out of my control! The middle right part of the painting is quite lovely now with the navy blue peeking through the copper drips as it's hard to tell which layer is which--this is quite intriguing. And as a viewer, that's all you want is to have the viewer stop and take a "double-take" because that's what's interesting to the eye.
TThis section you can see my brush strokes more distinctively because of the bright red, pink colors. But the same effect is also shown except you can tell that I've dipped into a couple different colors simultaneously with my large brush and twirled it around in my hand to create "smeared" effect (especially in the middle with the red/hot pink turning into orange/copper. There's a rhythm to this painting specifically as well. We shall see if it continues to the final look!
