Sunday, January 5, 2014

New Year, New Projects

It's a new year, and in the spirit of starting afresh I have assigned myself a new project. A couple actually, but the first one I got a start on this week.

I've been thinking about transformation... it's one of those subjects that appeal to me for some reason. It's a recurring theme in many of my favourite novels and movies. I love the transformation of the landscape from a fresh snowfall, or the sense of renewal after a thunderstorm. So in this spirit I approached my first works of 2014... I would take 3 canvases that I had deemed to be beyond redemption, and transform them into something else... hopefully something decent. I have a pile of these reject canvases... I start them and don't know how to continue, so I just keep throwing paint at them until they are all kinds of ugly. The beauty of acrylic is that everything can be painted over, and there are techniques that will allow the under layers to show through in varying degrees. It allows a luminance to develop that you can't get from a flat tint of opaque paint on a gessoed ground. This is what I hoped to achieve here.

"In the City: I" 9x12 Acrylic on Canvas
"In the City: II" 9x12 Acrylic on Canvas
"In the City: III" 9x12 Acrylic on Canvas

In the entire 3 canvases, this is the one area that I completely and totally love. I love the way the colours interact, the way the transparency gives depth to the layers, the patterning that I got in the dark area. If it were bigger it could be a painting all on its own. Maybe I will use it as inspiration to do another piece... but who knows if I'll be able to replicate it. That's the thing when you're playing... how do you remember what you did? I'll get better at that as I go along, I'm sure. But for now I'm just going to play.










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