I begin many of my compositions lately by applying thin beads of frisket, a masking fluid, which can be painted over after it is dry. After the paint is dried, the frisket is removed, revealing the white of the paper. Frisket lines become white lines.

I did not have a figuration in mind when I drew my frisket design. However, the patchwork of enclosed areas that results from many free-form sketches offers opportunity to juxtapose harmonious or contrasting colors.

The white streaks in the abstract painting below are artifacts of the frisket application process. I rapped the paper on one edge before the masking fluid dried, which caused it to drip. The drips of the masking fluid ultimately became the white streaks.

Abstract 070917
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

In seeking to make figurative sense of this composition, perhaps the streaking on the right side of the paper could be interpreted as movement. This would imply that the patchwork enclosed mostly by a white outline is some kind of solid or quasi-solid in motion.