This was supposed to be a close-up of just water-flowing whites and greys cascading down the canvas. It was to be above our stairs in the tall vertical stretch of wall just right for a 48″x24″ painting.
I did the first layer: long streaks and whispy undulations. Black rock. Ahhhh. There was no love shining back from the canvas. It didn’t feel right. It sat for weeks.
Then one day I got angry and went full abstractoid on the piece, throwing paint here and there, wielding the palette knife like a drunk monkey. That’s the first frame of the animation above. This was better I thought, but it was still such a crappy composition. Elements of the paint were fighting each other for purpose, and all were failing.
I took a long step back, and looked deep into the shapes that had already appeared. I recalled another smaller painting in progress that attempted at realism: it was of a waterfall with lush green around, probably tropical.
My brush started moving, picked up a glob of blue and white and spread that out in the lower part of the painting what appeared to be a blue pool. From there the artwork started coming alive.
I’m still working on it this day. I’m not one of the fast painters who can finish a work in a matter of hours. These things take days, months and years.
Where do you think this one will go?
What do you think?