Moving Pictures

About the painting

Moving Pictures is a rectangular abstract painting that is composed of a series of vertical stripes. These were created with my enamel paints which form the backbone of all my contemporary original artworks.

The colours are really quite extraordinary. That’s down to the pigments in the paints I use as they have a high density. The result is a finish that has great depth and lustre.

How it was created

You may like to know that this painting was actually part of a larger canvas. It started life as a vertical piece then, about two thirds of the way down I angled it onto a flat surface.

What this means is that as the paint flows down it hits the angle and spreads out – and that’s the part you see here, it’s what happens to the paint as it spreads out on a shallow tilting angle. If you want to know more about this technique then you can watch the video below.

You may also like to know that I have only ever done this twice in the all the years I have been an artist. This is mainly due to the huge amount of work it requires to set up the tables, work out the angles and fix a canvas vertically. It’s a lot of work! The other painting is called Last Horizon.

Closer inspection

From most viewing distances this artwork will always feel like a cascade of beautifully balanced, vibrant stripes. But as you get closer into the surface of the canvas things get a little less obvious. In fact something rather clever begins to happen – you start to lose the lines and see that it’s a lot more fluid and organic that you may have initially realised.

Each stripe contains rivers and flows of paint that meander off in all directions but never too far away to lose the verticals. It’s such an interesting concept and one I find endlessly engaging. You can see what I mean as you scroll through the photos.

Lines you thought were straight suddenly appear to move in different directions. Then you get hit with the wealth of tonal variations that exist in almost every stripe. This is one of those paintings that looks simple but is really very complex. As time passes you’ll be able to pick out nuances you’ve never seen before. That’s one of the many joys of owning a Swarez original – it’s ability to keep on giving, year after year.