California Dreaming

Creating the dream

California Dreaming is a large, rectangular abstract painting created with orange, red and lime green paints. Added to this are a palette of complimentary colors that include purple violet, water blue and white.

This is quite a small range of colors in fact yet the finished piece is breathtaking – with all of its delicate nuances, tonal ranges and endless movements. I normally only get this intensity of finish with a much broader range of colours so I definitely rate this as a leap forward in my own personal development in the technique of fluid painting.

The painting was created with a piece of flat canvas, on to which I poured colours into specific areas, on at a time. Over the course of several sessions I moved and mixed paint until the volumes and consistencies until I reached a point where I could start manipulating the liquid paint with tools and fingers.

The finished painting

Whatever your color preferences may be, you can’t ignore the fact that this is pretty spectacular. The sheer depth of detail is really quite extraordinary. I am exploring new ways of moving and forming paint and the results of that are evident right here.

As a lover of orange (my favourite colour) I relish the opportunity to use it wherever I can. So it’s no surprise it’s the dominant colour in the painting. But that only tells half the story. It’s ability to take centre stage is down to the the relative ratios of the other paints. And this is my whole ethos about balance.

You have to carefully navigate your way through the maze as you paint to understand what makes you feel okay about something. Balancing that is key and isn’t any easy thing to put into a sentence – I kind of just know if it’s right or wrong.

What you end up with, when all of that slots into place, is a powerful, uplifting painting with all the right boxes ticked. Bright, cheerful, celebrationary and vibrant. What more do you need as walk past a painting every day?