Ancient Mechanism, May 30, 2010, acrylic, wash, monotype, sumi paper on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches.I've been having a lovely time painting outside on my porch, using my portable studio table, the weather has been perfect all weekend, and another perfect day is ahead for tomorrow. This little painting started off as something I grabbed off the reject pile today...the original idea was red like my molten ore paintings... but it turned into mud and looked like crap, so I covered it up with Payne's gray (one of my favorite colors) and that looked crappy too, so I forgot about it for several weeks, then today, while I was waiting for other works in progress to dry, I decided to mess around with this...at this point, I figured, I already fucked it up, why not get experimental and see how much worse I could make it look...so I took a square piece of 2 ply mat board and slathered one side with a mix of Payne's gray and burnt umber (makes a nifty earthy blue/brown) and then I went crazy and squeezed a blob of vermillion on the other half, slathered that around and then flipped it onto the victim and "splat", on it went, and I burnished the crap out of it with the nearest jar (since I don't have a press to run it through, I have to print my monotypes with whatever I have handy!) Well...if only I photographed the hideous mess I made...oy, it was yuck-foo...so I turned the mat board a half turn and pressed the colors opposite...that made a bigger mess...then I dabbed my brush into burnt umber and dabbed that around...well, it toned down the vermillion...I was still not happy with it. I let it set for a bit, strolled around the yard, checked my email and browsed on line for a bit, ordered a new book, and then eventually made my way back to it...well, it still looked bad. I poked around a bit, I had just mixed a new batch of my special pale green that I love (that lovely lichen color) and I noticed the skin of the dried paint had released inside the jar, and I just had to start poking at it...yup that was a mess, so I took the piece of dried acrylic skin that was dripping with color and...you got it...I "brushed" it on the mess I was making...hey now...that...wait...I dabbed, dabbled, pressed, and poked...it got better... and thennnnn, I did a little bit of this, a little bit of that...oh, how about this...and flick this on it...well, will you look at that...I like it!
And so, that's how this little guy came into being...I love when that happens!
1 comment:
How wonderful to move outdoors to paint on the porch.
For me this is a most enjoyable read on process...and the outcome has that ancient, dug up, found treasure quality that radiates from your work... shimmering (in a subdued lichen kinda way)...love the patterns... circular, unified and bold.
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