Tag: canvas

Growing Pains – Arizona

I’m currently experimenting with scaling up my work. I often work between postcard size and A4 and having enjoyed wrestling with something a little bigger recently, I decided to go one step further. I bought a box of 20 inch x 16 inch canvases, opened the box, took a deep breath and dived in.

I tore into this experiment quite hastily. So far I have five works in progress and having paused for breath, I confess I’m not quite sure where I’m going…yet. I will share them all with you soon, and right now, here is the one that is currently catching my eye.

Arizona

The working title is Arizona – there’s a sense of heat emanating from the work.

I applied the orange as a watered down acrylic wash. This is the first time I’ve watered down acrylic and I like the way a few heat spots have appeared on the surface. I didn’t want complete coverage, so I’m happy that the brush dragged a little and allowed a few grains and bumps of canvas to show here and there. The blocks are painted in titanium white.

I can’t decide if this is finished or not. I’m torn between enjoying the simplicity and feeling there is something missing. I may hang it at home for a while and see how my feelings towards the picture develop. More to follow soon

The Art of Parties

I was recently invited to a friend’s party, and decided to paint an abstract piece of art for the host. I got in touch to find out her favourite colours, and after receiving the response, ‘purple and orange,’ I got to work. I decided to paint onto a 16 inch x 12 inch canvas, that’s a large surface as far as I’m concerned. Here’s phase one of the painting.

Phase One

Next I added some orange. Ouch! What an awful clash.

Phase Two

I stared to get a bit lost after this. First I applied a layer of translucent white to the main body of the canvas, to tone down the background. That didn’t work so I then applied a thick layer of purple over the orange and scraped off the excess to reveal hints of the colour beneath. I like the effect but the overall composition still isn’t working. It was the night of the party and I had to leave an incomplete painting to one side – there was no way I was giving this to anyone in it’s current form!

Phase Three

The party was good fun. I returned to my work and things deteriorated.

I was lost, and in a mess. I was just about ready to give up, then I decided to take the solid block of colour back to basics. Out came the titanium white.

Phase Six

The intensity disappeared – and then Keira offered a suggestion, ‘how about blue?’ How about it indeed. I loosely mixed up some blue and some translucent white, which I then dragged the mixture over the titanium white in short, blocky strokes.

Phase Seven Phase Seven Close Up

Finally! Several hours after I started – and with some valuable assistance, I got the painting somewhere I feel happy with. The recipient has seen a photograph and has approved, so it’s now signed and in the process of being delivered.

What have I learned? I tried too hard to work the two favourite colours into one piece – they weren’t getting along. I also learned that when using acrylic paint – you can salvage a disaster. Had I been making this in water colour – I expect I would have abandoned ship and settled on something else as a present long ago.