Universal Constant

An introduction

Universal Constant is a rectangular abstract pasting that’s created using a signing pendulum technique. Left alone, it’s a relatively simple process – you can either choose a circular or elliptical swing and let physics do the work.

However, there are layers of difficulty attached to this if you’re trying to do something a bit different to everyone else. Firstly, there’s the background layer; here we have a combination of purple, lilac and black which sets compliments the top layer beautifully.

A lucky break?

Now, I see a lot of pendulum paintings that only use one colour of paint. Then, even if more than one are used, it’s normally done one after the other. In this painting though, I have mixed a metallic purple, a dash of white and a bright pink at the same time and let them sort themselves out inside the paint pot as it swings. It’s here that I admit that I got lucky.

The paint was mixing evenly on the outer edges of the rotation. As it got closer into the centre though, where you can clearly see the oval space, I got some kind of effect that deposited the purple paint on one side in greater quantities than the pink.

Shifting tones

That’s given the painting such a great tonal shift – also it’s making look 3D in places. Coupled with that there’s also the changing dynamic of how this single string of paint looks when you get in very close.

It’s difficult to describe this accurately (thank goodness for r the close ups photos on this page) but I liken it to coiled cables stacked on top of each other. It’s as if the paint has mixed itself right at the point it comes out of the pot and, through a combination of stuff I don’t really understand, produced this brilliant and mesmerising finish. And it’s something I have never seen before on anyone else’s work.

So what you get with this painting is a series of calming and gentle colours arranged in the way that nature intend them to be and with a couple of twisters and turns you may not have expected.