Solar Flare

About Solar Flare

Solar Flare is a large rectangular painting featuring red, orange, gold, yellow and charcoal colored enamel paints. I created this in an upright position (unusually for me) and I also used brushes (very unusual for me!). You can see exactly how this painting was made by watching the video below.

The painting was created with a base layer that consists of me blending all those wonderful, warm colors on the canvas, followed by a carefully considered series of small lops and twists. There was some debate on the live broadcast as to whether I should have put these on but on reflection it was absolutory the right thing to do.

The panting was created, for the most part, on my pan tilt table. This is a piece of equipment that can rotate through 360° and also tilt on a 180° plane. This unique contraption allows me full access to the painting on all four sides and also the ability to use gravity to move paint around – something that has created some pretty special paintings over the years.

The use of color

The color combination is one that makes me think of heat and warmth. Using orange and red together is an obvious choice for creating this emotive response but it’s the inclusion of the supporting colors that can really makes a difference. So in comes a deep charcoal (not black as I felt it was too dark) alongside a stunningly rich melon yellow and hints of metallic gold.

The black does make an appearance at the end but that’s only for a couple of small paint flicks. Interestingly, the only time the mint/pistachio/duck egg blue makes an appearance is at the end too. This tiny addition has quite the profound effect as it traverses both light and dark colors.

If you watch the video you’ll hear me making reference to the raspberry red that i use in abundance. I am obsessed with this at the moment as it seems to carry both red and pink hues at the same time. This makes it a powerful bridge between the two individual colors and means I can get the same feel as using both of them.