I’ve never really done anything like this before and it’s been an interesting experience trying to give it a name. It’s certainly colourful and it’s rather yellow and bright too! Perfect for adding a little sprinkle of life and playfulness into a space where colour is required.
180cm x 130cm (71″ x 51″)
This large piece of colourful abstract art is the second one with the name Quantum. Not intentional I may add but after having asked my loyal supporters on Facebook to give me some suggestions this is the one the fit the best.
Normally I don’t struggle with names but for this one I did. In some ways I guess it’s because I’ve never done anything like it before – not even remotely like it – so choosing a suitable title was always going to be problematic. Generally it is for those paintings that are just a little bit out there. Like this one.
So the painting itself is made up of a blended background of yellow, cream and a very light blue. It reminds me of a spring sky; all very light and cheerful. The main shapes and movements are made from 7 different colours and form this loop structure that moves in and out of the centre.
It’s fair to say that an awful lot of my paintings have some kind of scientific influence in them and, as you can probably guess already, this one is no exception. I did a painting in 2013 called Collider Scope that was influenced by some of the research done at CERN in the search for the Higgs Boson and I think this is a step along from that.
The inspiration was similar; I had been looking at some of the particle paths that the Large Hadron Collider had been producing and knew instantly that these would make a great painting.
I was conscious of not making it the same yet still resembling the images that influenced it. I think it’s rather cool to imagine particles smashing into each other at near the speed of light and being able to see what happens afterwards. I think in my head I can see that very clearly – the trick is to get that translated into paint.
You may also like to know about the effect I created in the centre. Look in the close up photos above and you’ll see I have created a valley of paint right down the middle. It’s a technique I used to great effect on Polymorph.
It’s a chemical process of retarding the flow characteristics of the paint once placed on the canvas. Mostly it results in me burning a large hole but thankfully I got the balance right and it didn’t on this occasion. What’s left afterwards is a very thin layer of paint that looks like its been parted and kept at bay. Hard to describe but great to look at. And at some angles it’s almost three-dimensional.
Quantum Rainbow adds light and colour but as an abstract it’s very light hungry (meaning it requires some lighting for it). It’s a necessity to get the most out of the colour ranges and tonal depths of the paint. Spotlights are great for ambient and low light conditions but a direct source of natural light will light this up like a Christmas Tree.
What I’m most happy with is the detailing. For a rather unique style of work it may be the overall shapes and colours that draw you in but it’s the details that follow that really steal the show for me.
