In addition to my printmaking and book making experiments, I like to paint. I took a class at AIS about Art and Design. It basically covered the Modernist period up to about the 80s. I used to think people like Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko were hacks. Once I understood the art and what they were trying to accomplish, it really spoke to me. I actually really liked the movement and it has been a major source of inspiration for me. Sadly I have not had a lot of time to do any art or anything lately. Its my Senior Year in school so I keep busy with all of that.
Anyways, I am going to speak a little bit about my color field experiments and how I go about creating them.
My latest work which I just finished and took me about 9 months to do. It only took me so long because I never had the time to work on it. The work acrylic and is 3 foot by 5 foot. It is one of my largest paintings to date.
I always stretch my own canvas for the most part. So after I made my canvas, gessoed and sanded it down I, created my first glaze. I used only 3 colors for my painting, and my first glaze is Quinacridone Gold.
To make my glazes I use Golden's Glazing Medium, it comes in either gloss or satin. I prefer the satin finish because I learned the hard way that gloss is a pain in the butt. When ever I tried to have something glossy photographed I would get lots of glare. So I stay away from glossy stuff. I mix a lot of medium to paint I do about 10 parts medium to 1 part paint. I don't really measure it out so I just eyeball it, so I may be using more medium than 10:1.
Anyways, I am going to speak a little bit about my color field experiments and how I go about creating them.
My latest work which I just finished and took me about 9 months to do. It only took me so long because I never had the time to work on it. The work acrylic and is 3 foot by 5 foot. It is one of my largest paintings to date.
I always stretch my own canvas for the most part. So after I made my canvas, gessoed and sanded it down I, created my first glaze. I used only 3 colors for my painting, and my first glaze is Quinacridone Gold.
To make my glazes I use Golden's Glazing Medium, it comes in either gloss or satin. I prefer the satin finish because I learned the hard way that gloss is a pain in the butt. When ever I tried to have something glossy photographed I would get lots of glare. So I stay away from glossy stuff. I mix a lot of medium to paint I do about 10 parts medium to 1 part paint. I don't really measure it out so I just eyeball it, so I may be using more medium than 10:1.
The glazing finish is sorta like regular matte medium. The difference is that the medium is a little bit more fluid (not much more) and dries much slower. It may also have some kind of flow releaser in it too. I think the glazing liquid is really just thinner medium, with lots of retarder and some flow releaser. However I have yet to find a satin medium anywhere besides this one. It even works great as a regular medium when mixed 1:1.
I start out with using a very thin glaze of Quinacridone Gold over the whole canvas. I then start to slowly build up certain areas with multiple glazes of Quinacridone Gold. Some areas have more depth than others.
My canvas sat in this state for close to 4 months. (for about 2 1/2 months it say just stretched) would look at it everyday in my room and I was falling in love with just the Gold. It is one reason it took me so long to complete this painting. I wrestled with the idea of adding more colors as I had originally planned. I eventually got past just leaving it one color and added more.
I would test colors on paper and on test canvas to see how the colors would work before I went any further.
Here I am choosing some colors. I was planning on only using Quinacridone pigments because they are very transparent.
Here is a test of the said colors. I kept putting glazes on top of glazes to see how they would layer on top of each other. I am glad I did this because I was planning on using Burnt Orange and Burnt Scarlet, but after seeing how they layered I was not happy with the result. I ended up using Quinacridone Sienna and Anthraquinoid red (not pictured). I actually really like the way Alizarin Crimson looked better, but since its a very fugitive color I choose some the other.
Here is my Second glaze of Quinacridone Sienna. I love how orange it looks compared to the Quinacridone Burnt Orange in the glaze. Although Rothko is a major inspiration for me, I refuse to do rectangles of colors like he did. I want to do something different something that feels a little bit more organic. I do not think too hard on where to put things, I just put them down as I feel they should go.
Here is the painting with the red added on top of the sienna.
I always varnish my paintings. Much like my choice in medium I like satin finishes. For acrylic paintings I use Golden's Polymer UV Satin Varnish. I use this because it cleans up with basically water. The varnish comes pretty thick and in order to use it I needed to thin it down with water. I use 1 cup water and 1/4 cup of varnish. Golden makes the varnish thick because if it were thinner the UV particles would not stay suspended in the solution. Do not let the thinned down varnish sit for more than a few days, because you will see the varnish start to separate and it is ruined at that point. The other thing is The varnish is removable with common household ammonia. Ammonia should also be used to clean out your varnish brush because if just water and soap are use it will leave the brush stiff. This still happens to me a little bit when I use ammonia to clean the brush but it is not that bad. If the brush does go stiff just rinse it out with ammonia and water and it will become soft again.
