A yellow, minimal original artwork
I like simple things as well as the complicated ones.
Often though the need to be clear and precise requires more practice and patience than ever.
In the end though somebody’s sofa will come alive with this hanging above it. Like a ray of sunshine every day.
I’ve written previously on the tedious cliches of ‘less is more’ and ‘not everything has to scream out at you’. So it would be condescending of me to go over old ground when it comes to a painting that doesn’t look like it has any substantial story or gravitas.
I like to let you think that of course because, as you may have come to expect, the truth is somewhat different from the perceived value. In fact I’ve attempted 16 times to get the swoop the way I like it. More often that not it’s been a material issue that’s caused the problem. And by that I mean my enamel paints.
No matter how often I use them (and that’s a lot I assure you), no two mixes are ever the same – I like that as it adds a dynamic to everything I do. The down side is that can’t ever replicate something I’ve done before as I can never get the paints to behave the same way twice. And so it is with the pouring of the swoosh.
Maintaining edge accuracy has been the most problematic issue to get over as I wanted to get a shape that kept an even boundary on the top and bottom – something that would ”hold’ the paint in the centre (a place where I could have more freedom to create shapes within shapes).
I’ve had some truly epic fails along the way but eventually, at the seventeenth attempt, I got it how I wanted it. Contained, fluid, moving, balanced, centered, bright, deep and applied with exactly the right amount of paint and covering the right amount of surface area.
So minimal it may look but it’s a complicated balance to bring together all the factors that turn it into something that’s feels effortless rather than something oppressive and poorly executed.
Unusually too I have taken almost all the glossiness out of the finish – leaving an unreflective surface that doesn’t catch light. It’s a final sucker-punch that you don’t expect. Well, got to keep you on your toes haven’t I?
