I originally had leaves in mind again when I began this painting (see Abstract Leaf from a couple of days ago). However, I incorporated some variations on a garden variety leaf (pun intended). Instead of embedding the veins within the meaty part of the leaf, I placed them on the outside. They could serve as antennae […]
I carried forward my experiment in which I painted on a crumpled ball of relatively light-weight paper (Abstract – After Simon Hantaï) to today’s effort to apply Hantaï’s method to a very heavy (246#) sheet of linen-textured paper. I scored the paper along its width, with about a dozen (more or less) parallel lines. After I […]
The final position in my grid is second painting totally surrounded by others in the grid. This painting has more variations in texture than in color. The composition stands by itself, however, with enough white space and faint charcoal lines to keep the interest of the viewer. The small blue patch at the upper right appears to be […]
I started again by etching designs with my compass/divider and my straight edge. I began with circles, then partial circles, which I extended with arcs of longer radii. Somewhere during this process, the idea of a leaf began to coalesce. I had ideas about painting within the lines with interesting contrasting colors. However, the first […]
The paper I used today was very heavy, 246 pounds to be exact. [Note: this is not the weight of a single sheet, but rather the weight of 500 sheets, or a ream of paper.] I like the weight because the paper won’t buckle significantly if I soak it with water and, I can incise […]
The tenth, or penultimate position in my grid is one of only two paintings in this series totally surrounded by other paintings of the grid. This painting has a wider range of colors than most of the other grid entries. It also is continues the patterns of the adjacent grids. I like the charcoal lines that […]
Thanks to Sally (@ArtQuartet) for telling me about the work of Simon Hantaï. He folded his canvases before he painted them. “In 1960, Hantaï developed his technique of “pliage” (folding): the canvas is folded and scrunched, then doused with colour, and unfolded, leaving apparent blank sections of the canvas interrupted by vibrant splashes of colour.” (1) […]
The ninth position in my grid is directly above grid #8, and is the last of the three portrait-oriented grid entries. It is also the final painting on the perimeter of the original grid of 11 paintings. Combined with the painting in grid #8, we see the continuation of the gentle curve of the red-gray-blue arc. The […]
I blotted some transparent earth colors on a wet sheet of watercolor paper. I had previously folded and creased the paper in different places. I then drew several sets of partial circles. The arcs were actually scratches made by a divider, a compass-like device with two sharp points, instead of steel point and a pencil point. I made […]
The eight position in my grid is to the left of grid #7 (at the 7 o’clock position) continuing in the clockwise direction on the original grid of 11 paintings. Out of the eleven individual paintings, #8 is one of three that is oriented in the portrait position (where the short dimension is the width and the long […]
