Big art
OK, so it wasn’t really a big art experiment but it does galvanize the desire for me keep pushing forward with my big art painting.
There are many big art paintings I create that don’t follow any particular rules or styles and some that combine many. I think with this particular painting I have just about ignored every rule and every concept attributed to what a piece of modern art is about.
Letting go
Sometimes I think you just have to let something be and not look for a long-winded, verbose reason to justify its existence. Liquid Tension Experiment gets me on a very personal level; don’t know why it just does.
I mean, rather than describing what is going on it may be easier to describe what isn’t? There are a dizzying number of shapes, infinitely changing tonal shifts, empty spaces, full spaces, angles, rivers, mountains, ripples, arcs, sweeps, drops, splashes and throws. There are circles and curves too; lots of them. There’s detailing on an almost microscopic level as well as giant continents of colour that fight for supremacy. This is what big art is all about for me.
Soothe and excite; all at once
And all this energy and apparent pandemonium is made up of soothing shades of pink, burgundy, pebble grey, purple, chestnut, red, white and black. That’s it – eight colours. No rainbow of choices, no complex blending, just a carefully chosen palette of colours I’ve had huge fun with. I like the extremes of making something wild out of something calm.
Liquid Tension Experiment is an original piece of big art ; painted in enamel paints onto a flat piece of Belgian canvas then coated three times with primer. When dry he was stretched around a seasoned timber frame made from Dutch hardwoods (via sustainable forestry) with all staples on the reverse. The result is a hand-made piece of art that stretches all the way around the edges. Signed on the reverse by me.
