Hypersonic

An unexpected result

Hypersonic is a bit of a departure for me in terms of how I apply paint to canvas. It started out as a catch canvas actually – that means it was placed below my tilt/rotate table in readiness to catch the excess paint from another painting. I tend to do this primarily to stop big volumes of paint from going onto the floor (it helps to keep the floor as level as possible so mounds of paint really don’t help).

As with all canvas I cut I try to use it for good, and if I can make something credible from even the most unlikely of techniques then that’s fine by me. When it came to this painting I placed a flat canvas underneath the tilt table and applied paint to the canvas on it. Slowly but surely the orange and red paints began to edge closer towards falling off the canvas and as they did I captured them onto the blue base coat I applied ten minutes prior.

Catching paint

As the droplets of paint fell I soon realized I was on to something special. I had to think quickly of course as I needed to keep the tilt table at the right angle and with a gentle rotation to ensure I could form the arc shapes properly. Too slow on a rotate and the gaps would be pronounced, too slow and the build up of paint would be too great.

Somehow I managed to get the variables just right and let almost all of the droplets fall into their won space without being compromised by another. It was actually a very hard thing to do but I did it.

The result of this unexpected droplet catching process is a painting that exceeds all my expectations. It’s vibrant colours are one thing but to think I captured all these movements in a such a way that they form such beautiful gradients that interlock over each other makes my heart very happy indeed.