I wanted to paint something big, but I have all these small, crumpled sheets of paper around my studio. I crumpled up a whole book of paper for my Crumplers and Scratchers series.

I taped as many of these small (8″x5.5″), crumpled sheets as I could on a plywood board I use for stretching underweight watercolor paper. I covered the board with eleven of them.

Then I used wide brushes to paint on this prepared surface.

Grid Painting

I like the coherence of this study, as the design transcends the black grid borders. I hope each component can stand on its own as complete.

Note: Before I took the grid apart, I rubbed it with the side of a charcoal stick. This darkened the high points of the paper. Unfortunately I did not photograph this stage of development.