I got a request for a custom book project at the beginning of this month and finished it tonight. As always, I cut the pages out by hand and then apply glue, let it dry, trim it some more and then paint it. Sometimes I add colorful paper. This one is a lot of black paint. The book is a vintage copy of Pet Sematary by Stephen King.
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Oil painting is something I have dreamed of doing for many years. I am so thankful I can dig into it now. It feels as though a lot of my other art is CRAFT but painting is definitely real ART. Painting is a challenge – especially oil painting – because it is harder to deal with the paint and chemicals than one would think. I just dug in and taught myself…. figured it out by DOING (and getting paint all over!). It will a be a never-ending process of learning how the paint moves and “see” more clearly what I want my paintings to look like and get my brushes and knives to make it come to life. I’m starting with abstract paintings and will move on to more visualized paintings some day.
This painting I finished last night. I started it a couple weeks ago by painting the canvas black. Then I cut masking tape into thin strips and stuck them on… painted.. and peeled them up when I was done. It was so FUN to see the painting change even after I was done pushing the paint around. I found out that I am very good at making BROWN! And that a dark maroon red mixed with manganese blue instantly looks black. My favorite part of this painting is where the orange has some blue on it. What’s your favorite part?
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This painting actually is on its 3rd transformation. The first photo is the first rendition, the 2nd one can be seen in the corner of the photo at the bottom of this post because I didn’t actually take a photo of it by itself – I didn’t like it enough at that stage! – but that was good because it motivated me to make it what you see here in the 2nd photo. Much more abstract and wild. I can’t say that is is finished yet but I am going to wait for it to be mostly dry to add more and finally sign it.
The small square one here is the only one that is complete. Although I have not signed it yet either. I’m thinking I should sign my paintings with my Z rather than my given name. More “Me”.
