I am more of a representational artist rather than abstract, but occasionally fragments of colour or light happen that please me and they are usually arrived at quite unintentionally as it is with this piece.
This is a small (8 x 8) gallery canvas that I originally earmarked for experimentation with gyotaku printing. I had layered the canvas with different shaped pieces of various Japanese papers, some showing through in colour or texture. The resulting surface was the support for a print that never really happened.
Late last night I found a piece of textured paper, very thin, with spirals covering it, held together with threads of fabric/paper, almost like a lace doily. I put a piece of this over the canvas then randomly chose a colour to apply. My hand pulled out a perlescent liquid acrylic called 'galactic blue'. A bit wild but what the heck, it was an experiment. I poured it over the textured paper and brushed it on pressing it well into the gaps, rather like a stencil. When I pulled it off, it had the desired effect of leaving the papered canvas with fragmented shapes of the spirals.
Early this morning (my wish for surviving on less sleep seems to be coming true) I studied it again and decided to slap on a series of fairly complementary gold, orange, yellow and red to fill the empty fragments and spill over onto the acrylic ink surface.
Its a unique piece that is almost impossible to photograph because it changes in colour completely depending on the lighting, going from intense blues to rich purples and greens. It may be worth experimenting with it on a larger scale with different acrylics and textures to see what will happen.
