My favourite colours, on a big scale and with absolute freedom. What else could I possibly ask for? When it goes right the end result is something worth shouting about.
300cm x 130cm (118″ x 51″)
Let me be honest here; this is a gorgeously finished piece of art. I’m not trying to suggest its good or bad as that will depend on your own tastes, but it’s utterly flawless and beautifully executed.
You need to like black and gold for a painting like this to succeed in your mind but, that aside, it’s got a such a perfect combination of light and dark that I could literally stare at it all day. These kinds of paintings are really rather difficult as they involve the movement of a substance that has little regard for what you want to do with it – namely my enamel paint.
So to coax and coerce them into these spectacular flows and movements is nothing short of a miracle; even with my experience (with the material) it’s never worked out this well when all then techniques have been put together.
Though I place little or no figurative references into my abstract paintings there’s a hint of mountain ranges and deep crevasses that can’t be ignored.
It wasn’t intentional as I was more concerned with the blend and balance of colours and tones more than trying to make it look like something.
Sometimes that can happen when you get so wrapped up in trying to get the colours in the right places, with the right volume and in the right shape – you unexpectedly come up with a composition that fires a signal in your brain telling you it looks like an object you recognize. Our brains are very good at making sense of things that don’t.
The real success story of this painting is down to brand new application methods and a new splitting technique (which you can see at points through the middle where the darker layers are formed). The splitting is due to a new thinning agent and a mineral dispersant.
For the new application techniques the gold was poured on but for all the others it was strategically placed and then moved by lifting the canvas one way then the other until it formed a skin and stopped moving. For each colour and layer this was done individually and allowed to dry before moving on to the next one.
Allowing for no more than two applications per day, the painting took nearly three weeks to put together. During that time the canvas remained flat and had an industrial fan blowing across it 24 hours a day. This is so I could accelerate the curing phase and stabilize the paint before it disappeared off the painting for good!
So how do I feel about the finished painting? Ecstatic would be a very good word to describe how I feel about it.
In my opinion it’s got everything an abstract should have. Simplicity, drama, detail, a story to tell, light and dark, energy and effortless execution. It’s bold yet relaxed, light yet grounded. It has so many opposites that I think it will appeal to the Jekyll and Hyde in all of us.
You can forget your soft furnishings if you’re considering something like this because you just won’t need any. Keep things minimal and simple, roll back the colours and let this utterly gorgeous black and gold painting own the space for you. That really is the best way to enjoy something like this – by giving it the space it deserves.
