Here's another look at something that turned into something else, quite unexpectedly, and what happens when you keep messing with what you think is already finished. Somewhere during the depths of winter when I was bored, as I often am, I just started daubing paint on whatever surface I had to hand. I had no plan, as I rarely have a plan; I just wanted to see what would happen if I put certain colors up against certain other colors and then where it might lead. This is where is went initially:
Clearly I must not have been satisfied with that, because after an indeterminate amount of time, probably so that it could dry, I then did this to it:
And by "this," I mean a few things. Obviously I painted over what has now become the base of the painting, and then scraped away at that top layer. You can still see some of the original stuff underneath, but it's getting harder to detect. I also added some copper paint in the center, and a messy white stripe down the middle of that. And then I did something really weird. I added dirt. Yes, dirt. Those little bits and specks you see there? That's dirt. Because I think I realized at a certain point that I was going for something truly elemental, and because the paint was still wet so it would literally allow me to throw stuff at it. I think I ended up calling this one "Precious Metals." I like it. I think I also included it in one of the imaginary flag posts somewhere else on this blog.
So that's all fine and good. But then I kept looking at the image I had captured and then looking at different aspects of it, and I started to zero in on sectors of the painting. So I started to take photographs of them, and narrow it down some more. It becomes more granular, and almost magically starts to create new micro-paintings from the larger original. Like these:
So, lessons in layers, texture, and segmenting. Painting is fun, and there are absolutely no rules. Except don't be afraid. That's a rule.
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