My paintings of the past couple of days have been abstract expressionist watercolors (Back to Abstract?, Variation and My Niche). I worked diligently to organize my icons in a way that had some meaning to me, and to incorporate the metaphor of an invisible barrier between my older autistic brother and me.

My ‘rubber’ images are somewhat different (Last Rubber Image, Overdrive). I had very little control over them. When I poured the latex masking fluid onto the paper, I did not have a good idea of a final watercolor image. I might have chosen where to dribble, but in comparison to my paintings referenced above, I didn’t know what I wanted to portray.

Today’s experiment

In today’s study, I had the idea of drawing out a little of the masking fluid from a fish-like blob. I used a tooth pick to tease out four projections on the right side of the form and five on its left side. So I had an idea that this was going to be something of an undersea representation.

As in my other ‘rubber’ images, painting of the background – the area without the masking – did not suggest a final image. The resist material, the rubber, was present as a three-dimensional form, which lent a certain character to the intermediate, unfinished painting. When I removed it, I had to re-imagine the piece in ‘flat form’ – without the third dimension. In one of my first images of this sort, I was sufficiently irked to pen-and-ink in the third dimension.

In the study below, I used contrasting, bright colors for the shapes revealed by the masking material.

I discovered various relationships between shapes and made up an internal narrative of an undersea tableau, including electric fish seeking life under the sandy bottom; two eyes of an ancient shield-headed fish; and other interesting creatures.

I say this is unintentional expressionism because I didn’t have a pre-conceived notion of what I was painting and yet it ended up as something I expressed anyway. There is some fun in this. I hope to try doing this more.

Unintentional Expressionism
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block