I began with long, gently curving yellow lines. Then I put down some short, staccato strokes in yellow and light blue (turquoise). Carmine red was a good choice for the emerging pastel palette. I turned an errant red drip into a starburst. Along with the comet-like trajectories of the yellow and red shapes, it inspired […]
I originally put down the long yellow strokes.I worked with pastel colors at first: turquoise, light carmine red and cadmium yellow. I noticed a subtle spiral. I put in darker red drips, some Hooker green and darker blue-green splatters, adding a layer of complexity. I used pen and ink to outline selected yellow shapes. To […]
I began with quick light blue streaks on the paper. More thoughtful, deliberate yellow strokes were next, suggesting an origin for the original blue strokes. I wasn’t sure where this was going, when a spot of cadmium red light dripped onto the paper. I liked its placement, an element that set up a balance point. […]
I like the overall pastel look to this experiment. The inner complexity is bracketed on each side, by two dark red shapes, the left one of which is interrupted by the edge of the paper. The turquoise blue wavy structures bracket the top and bottom of the picture. The inner figures are not overly intricate, […]
Many of my paintings so far this year are the result of a rather dull palette. I have also used only two or three different brushes to create my paint strokes. In today’s experiment I changed things around by starting with a very bright red (cadmium red), and a wide fan brush. I have used […]
I usually start compositions with closed curves. That is, if the curved lines were to be extended, they would make a shape, like a circle or an oval. In today’s experiment, I began with open curves. If we extend these lines, they would not converge to make a shape. I tried to keep this in […]
This year, I’ve begun many of my watercolor abstracts with arcs and other round brush strokes. In this experiment I began with more boxy strokes. My first ‘random’ strokes were purposely rectilinear. The outline reminded me of a dog. I spent the rest of my painting sessions trying to obscure the dogginess of the composition. […]
I began this experiment with a sweeping blue arc, then a minor gray blob. If you rotate the canvas below by 90 degrees counter-clockwise, you can see that the original brushstrokes trace the outline of a skull. I toyed with the idea of constructing an abstract portrait, but those first brush marks did not inspire […]
I have fallen back into one of my earlier ways of painting: I make a mark or a stroke with my brush and then decide what to do next. Each mark I make inspires the next. My idea of the finish painting shifts as the marks and strokes progress. Sometimes I make a leap, that […]
My paintings so far this year have a limited range of colors. This happened because I used small bowls of paint to mix my color and I have more than enough for a single work. I don’t like to throw away paint, so I use the left overs on the next sketch. I remembered that I […]
