Farscape

About the painting

Farscape is a large rectangular painting created with series of interlocking and overlapping arcs and semi circles. I used a combination of lime green, metallic purple, black, blue, turquoise, gold and white paints.

Out of all the styles I can turn my hand to it is this combination of half circles – usually applied with a window squeegee – that gives me the most satisfaction. I don’t know why and I have thought about it a lot. I just know that I could paint like this all day every day if I had the time to do so.

One reason is that my enamel paints are very suited to this kind of painting style. Broad strokes and long sweeps leave trails of paint that mix with each other in some extraordinary ways. This gives way to some astonishing effects as the paint begins to cure.

Layering the paint

Each arc is carefully considered in terms pf colour and placement before paint hits the canvas and the movement begins. Layering in this way allows me to build up a series of overlapping and interlocking patterns that give the illusion of depth. in some places you really can feel yourself walking right into the canvas.

Each time I drag paint I also have the bonus of being able to drag it over the paint that’s already there. In doing so, I can blend each layer with what’s underneath and this produces some amazing tonal blends as different colours of paint begin to mix with each other.

And let’s not forget what happens when there’s an excess of paint that the squeegee cannot contain. This normally oozes out of the sides of the rubber face and deposits itself as thick rivers either side of the dragged layer. This is another one of those instances where fate plays a helping hand!