"Slow Burn"
Image Size 35.5" x 48"
Acrylic
I felt like painting another large acrylic abstract and this is what I created. I started with a base of blues, reds and a neutral and let that dry. Then, I poured a mixture of gesso, water and matte medium and spread it randomly over the surface using a small piece of mat board to create a busy, abstract texture. Where that mixture was thicker, it was an opaque white and where it was thin, the base colors showed through. After that, I used thin veils of a neutral to tone down a lot of the background to make it recede and threw some white paint to create a feeling of energy. That always makes me feel good - throwing paint is the best sort of therapy. Then, I began adding my black and rust colors. Once I got those areas looking the way I wanted, I added the white details. I mixed the white paint with a gloss medium so that it would be different from the matte finish of the rest of the painting, but that detail doesn't show up as much as I would have liked because the lines are so thin.
I'm very happy with the texture in this painting. The reds and blues in the background are very subtle but add interest. One of the things that I love about abstract paintings is that the longer you look at them, the more you see. Sometimes, I think that can make them more interesting than representational paintings. They sure are fun to paint.
