A large smokey-grey and black painting with some delicately crafted finishes
The best colour combination?
I think so, or at least one of them.
In what can be seen as a very commanding and confident painting there’s a surprising grace and delicacy to it.
So what comes first, the painting or the name?
In this instance it was the painting. Smoke On The Water is named after the iconic Deep Purple track. A week or so after it had finished drying the name came to me in a flash; now every time I look at it I keep humming the chorus!
Why I painted it
Ever since I painted Between A Rock and a Hard Place I have yearned to get busy with these earthy elemental colours again. I don’t find it particularly easy to paint in such a limited range of tones but the inclusion of a strange murky grey has produced something rather beautiful.
To be honest I have no idea what this grey actually is but it’s a sort of mix between rusty steel, black, slate grey and mud! I really can’t find a more suitable way to define it than that. It’s properties are insane; although it’s the same type of enamel paint I normally use it’s the tonal range it produces that has astounded me – especially when I start adding chemicals to it.
Looks crazy! What’s going on here?
I guess you could definitely see it as a bit mad. But consider the potential of a space with this hanging in it. Perhaps there’s a lot of white wall space to be filled? I figure that it’s best to add a little drama and intrigue whilst you’re at it. I think it’s important to liven up a space and give it some presence. Life shouldn’t always be about playing safe or colour matching to your soft furnishings.
After all, life has an expiry date (thank you Shay Rowlett) so if you really want to remind yourself to make the most of every day and celebrate all that you are then Smoke On The Water is perfect for you. It’s contained though so don’t think it will slap you in the face when you sit down for a coffee, far from it. There’s a quiet rumbling of authority from it but it has boundaries and will never overstep its position.
Add the drama, forget the colour and keep your effortless neutral colour scheme alive!
What I think about this painting
Seriously? Do you even need to ask? If I could just paint in these colours all day I would be the happiest man alive. I can’t really explain why but I just love them. And since I changed my paints to reduce the glossiness there’s an even bigger reason to rejoice in the brooding primordial potential of this tonal combination.
Central to the success of Smoke On The Water is the way the shapes move and the way in which I have centralized the main elements of light and dark. Put them at the edges and it it all goes a bit heavy. If there’s any kind of focal point to be had then it has to go in the middle. Everything else is then complemented around it.
