More Progress, and a Title!

Well, yesterday I posted some progress photos of my latest painting, and asked for suggestions on the title.  Today I put in several hours of work and I'm pretty much finished with the painting, I do need to do a little minor touch up work where a stray drop of paint has landed or where an earlier layer of color shows through a top layer that is supposed to be opaque, I'll also paint the sides of the canvas in black all around, and then put an isolation coat on and a coat of varnish... but the basic painting is done.  Once the touch up is done I'll set up good photography equipment and take a high quality photo to post, but for now, my cell phone photo is going to have to do.

I've also given a title lots of thought, and to me, each of the sections in this painting is like a door or portal into an isolated world of optical wonder and illusion.  So I'm strongly considering the title "Inlets to Illusion".

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

New Abstract Piece in Almost Done!

Well, I've been working on a new abstract piece for my sister's "red and black" room, and I've nearly finished it.  I thought it might be nice to post some photos of the process today, then in a few days or  maybe a week or two when I'm finished, I'll post a photo of the finished piece.

First, I started off with a 30x24 inch canvas, and the only three colors of paint I would use for this painting, pyrrol red, titanium white, and mars black.

My first step was to cover the entire canvas in a coat of titanium white, of course, the canvas is white so this may seem silly, but it does serve a purpose, it gives me a much smoother surface to work on, and insures that later if I need to use some white to cover up and mistakes or splotches (or arm prints), the spot that I cover with it will match the background of the painting.

The next step was to use mars black and randomly divide the canvas into sections by making lines from edge to edge in a freeform style, and then to paint a black border all around the edge.

Then I proceeded to add details and designs into each section, using only the three colors I mentioned above.

 

Each time I worked at it, I added a little more detail, and tried to use different designs in each section. I decided to also make designs in the black lines that divided the canvas, but not in the border around the edge.

Some sections took longer than others, because of the extremely small detail I chose to use.  I started the painting on August 5th, but not only did I put in a lot of detail, I also became a grandma, took a three week road trip to my home state of California, and dealt with the holidays, so its now December 30th, and the painting is still not completed.

But, it is getting much closer! As I got closer to the end, I decided I wanted a few more "just" black and white sections, so I added a striped sphere like section on top of another section, and also did several sections with no red.  

So, I still have at least 4 more hours of work on this just to finish the painting, then I'll need to put on the isolation coat and varnish. Last of all, I need to come up with a title, I am toying with "illusions" as a title, but I am unsure right now if that is what I want to call it, feel free to comment with your suggestions!

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!