Tuesday 10 July 2012

A moment of reflection

I sometimes feel a little fraudulent, but most of my paintings are explorations into either technique, composition or concept. To be honest, it's rare that I'm a hundred percent satisfied with the results. Ever so occasionally I produce a painting that is an exemplar of what I'm trying to achieve. Mistakes are necessary if you're trying to improve, and, if a painting is almost right, I'm OK with it – perhaps some people prefer the slight slip-ups anyhow!

Over the past couple of weeks I have pondered whether to migrate from acrylic ink to a heavy-body acrylic paint. Don't get me wrong, I have loved using acrylic ink, but I have never felt they possessed sufficient 'body' to produce the opaque colour blocks I desired. Luckily, I had a tube of titanium white sculling-around a the bottom of a draw. I used this 'buttery' paint in a couple of recent works, however I was a touch dis-satisfied with the outcome. Upon reflection, I wanted something a little 'flatter', and minus the brush strokes. The heavy-bodied paint wasn't suited to fine work too. I always consider my choices very carefully, with plenty of research, and in retrospect to my previous endeavours. I believe I've now found the answer. It's a mid-way-house between paint and ink, which should allow me to paint with the underlying watercolour techniques I often employ, but with the necessary pigment concentrations as to achieve the flat opaqueness I'm looking for. Only time will tell if it does… but i'ts my best bet!

What's this 'exemplar'? It is this one below. Perhaps, not a potentially popular route…but, if it doesn't sell, it will look nice on my wall.

Empty sky

3 comments:

  1. It's brilliant. Simply brilliant! This one is probably one of my favorite paintings of all time!

    ReplyDelete