The Abstract Bandwagon

I’ve been sorting, some of my finished paintings and getting good photos of them. Came across this from about 2 yrs ago. It’s mostly watercolor, but some gesso. I like it, and must get it matted and framed soon.

"Moonglow", 21x29" Mixed Watermedia on paper.

It’s interesting how different the appearance of a painting is depending on the paint, but also what support is used. This is on Fabriano Artistico, 300 lb HP. It’s generally a very absorbent surface, so you need more paint to get rich darks.

March 6th, 2010 | Tags: mixed watermedia, Moonglow | Category: Finished Paintings | Leave a comment

I showed this one a week or so ago. Have worked on it off and on since, and I think it’s finished. I’ll put it away now and look at it again in a couple months, and if it still passes inspection probably I’ll mat and frame it. I sort of like it. Now I think I’ll call it Cold-Fusion.

Cold-Fusion, 12x18" on 300 lb paper

February 28th, 2010 | Tags: Cold-Fusion | Category: Finished Paintings | Comments (1)

I’ve been trying to use black gouache since taking a workshop from Mark Mehaffey last fall. Decided to try coating the paper first with the gouache and then trying ink on the spinner after coating the paper with the black gouache. Then I could selectively remove some of the spinner tracks, either by painting over the ink or washing the gouache and ink off.  Here’s the first result after coming off the spinner.

After adding ink on top of gouache.

This really is confusing and doesn’t have any focus. So, covering up some of the acrylic with more black gouache proved easy. Here’s the next result.

Better, but probably needs a little more defining.

A couple things still bother me about it, and I’ll work on those and post a new (and better) image  next time.

February 24th, 2010 | Tags: Black gouache, spinner | Category: Paintings in Progress | Leave a comment

Heavy (300 lb) watercolor paper is too expensive to throw away. I keep working it till I get something I like. This painting is a prime example. Actually it’s on the back of another painting that I didn’t like. I started this by just pouring some watercolors on and when it was dry found a way to make a design. This first photo is an early progress of it–from almost a year ago. Got it out and did some more work on it yesterday.

Untitled on w/c paper - about 15x17"

Then I added several more layers, and this is the way it looks today. Some of the difference in color is because this last one was photographed in daylight, and the first indoors in mixed bulb lighting.

Getting better, but still needs some work.

Will work on it more and post changes next time.

February 16th, 2010 | Tags: Consumation | Category: Paintings in Progress | Leave a comment

Check out my post of December 11 and notice how smooth and nice this painting on Tyvek is.  I left it hanging while we were on Holiday this early winter. When we got back the acrylic paint had fully dried and matured, and in the process caused considerable wrinkling of the Tyvek. There were a couple options open–I could have stretched it like a canvas on a frame, but it didn’t seem like it would work as it didn’t when I tried stretching a small part of it over a frame. The other was gluing it to a rigid backing, like heavy weight w/c paper or illustration board. I had one piece left of an advertised all-media “Art-Media” board which I used. Used a heavy dose of matte medium to glue it down. Had a very, very difficult time getting some of the puckers out, in spite of multiple brayer passes, and laying heavy flat weights on it. A couple I used a fine needle & syringe and squired some more matte medium in, but still wouldn’t stay down.  Guess, I’ll chalk it up to experience, and try doing another pour on a heavier substrate, like Yupo.

Here’s a picture of the back of the painting before I tried gluing it down, showing some of the wrinkles.

Back Of Painting on Tyvek

So, when I do a pour with a heavy paint load, such as undiluted fluid acrylics, I’ll not use Tyvek. It works well with thinner and lighter pours.

February 13th, 2010 | Tags: Five Gold Rings, Heavy paint load, Wrinkling of Tyvek | Category: Paintings in Progress | Leave a comment

I’ve been looking at this one for a while and decided it needed something more–one person suggested some more white chips to indicate the border that had some loose.

Here’s the first version before the extra chips.

Triune - Acrylic on Yupo 26x20"

Here it is after adding some more chips of gesso.

I think it helps a bit.  They’re pretty well fastened down with Matte Medium, so I can’t change them. Using paper shreds it looked OK. Any opinions?

February 10th, 2010 | Tags: Final Tweak, Triune | Category: Finished Paintings | Leave a comment

This piece started out as a kiss technique, using FW Acrylic Inks. It really was very nice, but needed some organization, as there was just too much to look at. So, saved the stuff that I liked and pushed back the rest.

Acrylic ink on Yupo 20x13 in.

Don’t think it’s quite finished yet.  Will have to look at it again after a rest from it.

January 26th, 2010 | Tags: Add new tag, Ink on Yupo | Category: Paintings in Progress | Leave a comment

I am writing this on my cell phone–I have tried for several days to log on using my laptop, but it wouldn’t log in. So, in desperation, I took a picture of the image on my computer screen with my cell phone, and hopefully I’ll be able to upload it. The result is barely acceptable, but you can get the idea of what happened. I have been working on perfecting my pouring technique using Tyvek and acrylics. The process uses quite a bit of paint, most of which runs off. I’ve been collecting this, and for this painting I used some that seemed a beautiful greenish black color. I just sort of dipped the sheet of Yupo in it. As soon as I could I squirted some gesso on the liquid paint. There were still a few drops of the greenish goo in the bottom of the pan and it seemed a little thicker, so I dropped them on the still wet paint. =================== Obviously, I was never able to upload the file of the painting, so now that I’m back to my desktop computer and able to log in, I’ve corrected the spelling and grammatical errors above, and will now continue to explain what happened and what your seeing on the painting. Where the gesso landed it just seemed to push the fairly liquid dark color aside. Where the drops of goo landed they also pushed aside the base color, and separated as well. It’s an interesting painting, and I’m calling it “Sunset Cliffs”

"Sunset Cliffs", Acrylic on Yupo, 20x13"

I put a little bigger image up, so click on it to see the details around the circles and  the gesso.  Should title this, “How make a painting, paint itself.” Now I’ll be back to regular posting again. Had a wonderful time in FL.

January 10th, 2010 | Tags: Acrylic spent, acrylics on Tyvek, Sunset Cliffs | Category: Finished Paintings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Here’s my latest start–on a good sized piece of Tyvek (36×24″). This is using DaVinci Fluid Acrylics.  I really like the way they work for this technique, and they seem to dry fairly fast and thin. (Some acrylics using this technique stay very thick even when  dry.)

Five Gold Rings, Four. Acrylic on Tyvek, 30x22"

You may have to see it bigger for some of the details. Posts my be spotty for a couple months as we seek out warmer climes.

December 11th, 2009 | Tags: Five Gold Rings, Four, poured fluid acrylics, Tyvek | Category: Paintings in Progress | Comments (4)