I'm starting a new series, Red White & Blue, with these two paintings. Despite the obvious allusion to the American flag, there is no subject matter intended, of course. Take it as you wish. The ground is True Navy, followed by white fluid acrylics, and the knifework is carmine, ultramarine blue and titanium white tube colors.
These two are additions to my Magenta & White series: Magenta & White No. 2 and Magenta & White No. 3. The ground is white over bright magenta fluid acrylics and the knifework consists of magenta and white tube colors. Both were painted Wednesday.
A couple of new additions to my White & Yellow Ochre series, here: White & Yellow Ochre No. 3 and White & Yellow Ochre No. 4. A friend says they look like butterscotch and cream, but, after my Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Caramel and Cherry Vanilla paintings, I thought it best to avoid any further food references in the titling. The ground for these, which were painted Tuesday, is white over Nutmeg Brown, both fluid acrylics. The knifework consists of white and yellow ochre tube colors.
Here are a couple of new additions to my Orange & Black series, Orange & Black No. 3and Orange & Black No. 4. These were painted on Monday, December 15th. The ground, admittedly, looks almost more brownish than orange - call it a "burnt" orange, then, I guess. This is due to a layer of black lurking beneath two coats of a darker and then a lighter orange, allowing some of the black to peek through here and there. I had tried an earlier version without the black underpainting, but the result was a very intense, flat orange with no texture or detail to it, so I started over. That's the first time that's happened, by the way. Usually, I display everything I paint.
Sunday, I started a new series, Blue & Purple. This is Blue & Purple No. 1 and Blue & Purple No. 2. These are done entirely in fluid acrylic, hence the very slight difference in the look, from my usual paintings. The fluid acrylic, being thinner and runnier, tends to drip a bit more and, thus, calls for faster, more immediate action when applying to the paper. Also, being less viscous than the tube colors, there is almost no impasto - in fact, it's rather thin. Another difference between the fluid and tube colors is that, with these particular fluid colors I'm using, the paint dries flat, as opposed to glossy. So, overall, these are the factors that account for any noticeable differences.
Most of my small paintings on paper have been a combination of fluid and tube colors. I usually reserve the tube colors for the knifework, painting the ground in either all fluid acrylic, or in a combination of tube and fluid, depending upon what colors I'm using and whether or not I want more texture.
Finally getting caught up, now. Here are the first two of a new series titled Blue & Green, both painted today.
You may have noticed that, since Blue & Orange No. 8 I've been adding some arcs, scratched through the wet paint with the edge of my knife. In the first of these, the lines were accidental, but I've decided I like the effect so much that I've begun deliberately incorporating it into each painting, now. Why not? I'm making the rules, here.
Just a couple of recent additions to my Green series, here. In these two paintings, done yesterday, I've added a little dash of a lighter green in fluid acrylic, which differs from the first three paintings in the series. I've put these two on the Prints page of my site, linked to Red Bubble.
I started this new series on Thanksgiving Day. I knew only that I was going to do something with an earth-toned color scheme and, other than that, I had no particular subject in mind. When I finished the first one several titles came to mind before I settled on Earth Suite. In the third and fourth paintings, I suppose I let the title I'd chosen suggest the addition of some greens, rounding out the previously unintended allusion to the natural environment. Even so, there is still no hint of recognizable imagery, although the viewer might think otherwise. None was intended, anyway.
A friend suggested yet another "flavor" I should try, and the result is the Chocolate Caramel series. Though I really started out with no subject matter in mind in the Chocolate Mint series, I suppose the suggestion of some vague reference to candy in Chocolate Caramel does exist, since the title and look were suggested to me beforehand. Even so, it's not intended as a literal depiction of either chocolate or caramel, though there is a strong resemblance. I hate it when objective imagery creeps into non-objective painting. Then people start judging it by the wrong criteria. Anyway, I won't let that happen again.
When I completed the first of this series, so far numbering three paintings, I was unsure what to call it, at first. A couple of things occurred to me, including "Brown & Green No. 1," but, as I looked at it, the name "Chocolate Mint" popped into my head and I liked it so I went with that, instead. It's totally non-objective; I didn't have any particular subject matter in mind when I did the painting, but the resulting image did suggest chocolate mint ice cream, I suppose, or maybe one of those chocolate mint patties you get in a restaurant after a good meal. I showed it to a friend, who instantly loved it, so I decided to do a few more. For me, the first is still the best, though. The lines, the forms and shapes and the movement, I think, are best in that original image. But, feel free to disagree.
Meanwhile, I've just done a short promo video on You Tube.
A little something different, here: Lemon Twist, which makes use of a pale palette. The title is simply derived from the dominant color, yellow. I may continue this as a series, though I've been working on some other projects, lately, as well. More on those later.
Here are the latest additions to the Jazz series, painted Sunday and Monday. I like where this is going, so far. The black showing through the colors is due to my technique on this series. Like a couple of other series I've done earlier, I'm using an old 4" brush that has become stiff as a board in order to paint the black ground. This imparts a textured brush stroke to the ground and, once dried, I then scumble the other colors over it with my knife. The ridges formed by the texture are what give the painting it's interesting textural treatment, which I really like. I hope you do, also.
