Overdrive

More information

Overdrive is a small, square abstract painting that’s created with a base of two colours of blue. On to this has gone a series of paint droplets that have been applied using a rotating, circular platform to which paint has been applied.

This will make a lot more sense by watching the video of how this painting was made. The machine I use is a custom built item that runs from a battery (no trailing wires) and sits in the centre of the canvas. I place paint on the platform and accelerate it up to throw the paint off the edges.

I capture the drops onto the canvas and this is what creates the halo effect. By playing with the variables on offer (speed, paint volume, viscosity etc.) I can create different kids of radial patterns from very small to very large, and every stage in between.

Colours

The painting we’re looking at on this page has a classic colour palette – blue, pink, aqua, white and black. I use this combination in other works but this is the first and only time it’s used as a halo painting. The black centre is a very compelling addition as it verry much pulls you in to the middle of the canvas.

The pink seems to be the most dominant for me, not only in the locations of the halos themselves but also for the three additional areas of pink that permeate the inner rings. I’ll admit that this happened by chance as some of the paint fell off the rotating platform and landed in splodges.

In hindsight, I’m very grateful for this happy accident as it’s given an already gorgeous painting an additional twist – and to this day it stands on its own for that as none of the other halos have this on them.