This week I finished up three in a mini series of abstract landscapes, called Tide Pools. I shared the painting process on YouTube. I realize the sound is a little, well, terrible lol. But don’t worry, I got smart and bought a mic so the next video will be better. I’ve already filmed another video chatting about the results of these paintings and the inspiration for them in more detail, it includes a closer look at my studio journal. I haven’t watched that video yet, it’s still sitting on my phone, so I’m praying it’s all in frame and the mic worked lol.
Also this week, I got a couple fun deliveries. Some Nova paint that I have been dying to try. I love the idea of just being able to dip into the little pots, instead of having to squeeze paint out. The paint looked a little thinner and soft which is the texture I’m liking right now since I tend to do multiple watered down layers. I haven’t opened up and tested the paints yet. I plan to this weekend but haven’t decided if a video is in order for it. Maybe a color mixing one? I’m most interested in seeing how the paints mix together, what colors I can get, and if it dries matte.
I also had delivered today some new panels. I got a few birch wood panels and some raw canvas gallery wrapped. I’ve been really itching to try my watery paint and ink on raw canvas. I know it should soak in and stain the canvas instead of sitting on top, like it does on gessoed canvas. I really don’t like gessoed canvas, paper, or boards for ink. The ink just slides around and can easily be wiped or lifted right off. I love on paper how the ink soaks in and the very saturated colors become a little subtler and subdued. I’m hoping for even more of that on the raw canvas. I’m quite interested in Helen Frankenthaler and her colorfield paintings. She worked on raw canvas, laying big pieces on the floor of her studio and pouring paint on it.
I first read about her in the book Ninth Street Women. It’s all about the abstract expressionists of New York in the 50s, with an emphasis on the women artists. It’s a wonderful book. So anyway a little canvas staining should be fun. Of course it could all go wrong, lol. not sure how the stretched canvas will react to all the water I like to use. I have some unstretched raw canvas in my Blick cart as well. So if pre-stretched goes south I can try another method.
For the wood panels, I plan to cover them in collage. Probably I will gesso them first, use matte medium to stick down the collage paper but I want to try not sealing the paper on top with medium. I had a little panel sitting around that was covered in old book paper and I had never gotten around to applying the top, sealant coat of matte medium on the paper. So I threw some ink on it the other day and it was interesting how it soaked into the raw, old, dry paper. Going to try that on a larger scale.
So many projects, so little time!