Incandescence

Colors and base layers

There’s just something about Incandescence that really gets me. It’s not the biggest artwork by a long way, nor is it the most complex. Yet it manages to conjure warm feelings and excitement simultaneously. Let’s dive in with what this is and how I created it.

Incandescence is a modern art painting created with a series of different colored enamel paints. It was layered carefully starting with the base. This is a blended mass of dark burgundy, purple, red, orange, mustard yellow and canary yellow. The big accents are magenta and Swarez blue (my own color).

I chose to maneuver the paint on the base with a four inch plastic grout spreader (a particular favourite of mine) and this has given me the ability to morph some unusual textures together and create some wonderful high and low points (something you see as you move around the canvas).

Movements

There is a fundamental cornerstone to this painting and that is its movement. Whether you hang it in portrait or landscape orientations it’s always there. The point of this is to bring all those elements of dark and light and allow them to rise/move from one side to the other. Think of it as a kind of release or flames coming from a fire, that kind of thing.

The latter is an entity in constant motion and so too is this painting. As all those blue and pink gestures dart and dance around from the fiery depths there’s a feeling of liberation as they all seem to be escaping from the darkness into the light.

These shapes and gestures are formed from all kinds of applications. I used tongue depressors, wooden spoons and old paint brushes to get the effects – some forming strings and droplets whilst others form rivers and globules. It’s remarkably engaging to sit and stare at it!