Straight and Narrow

                        

                                                      Straight and Narrow 

                                          Acrylic on paper, 15 X 22

I've been working on several projects at once, this one is the first one that is finished. It is a multi-layered abstract on watercolor paper. I had several objectives when I started this painting. 

1. I wanted it to be a cruciform. 

2. I wanted a color other than blue to be dominant. 

3. I didn't want any recognizable form to show up in the painting, for example a flower, fish or face. 

The hardest part was not using blue, a lot of my paintings lately have been blue dominant and I tried to steer away from even using a  blue . I did sneak some in one of the under layers but reminded myself to get it covered up so it's just barely visible. 

Abstracts are fun but take a lot of thought. I do a lot of painting on and wiping off until I get the look I want. Fortunately, once the acrylic is on the paper you can get fairly rough with it without ruining the paper. Even after drying some rubbing alcohol will take a layer or more of paint off if you want to change something. I usually start with a couple layers of gesso on an old watercolor painting so I have a good base to start on. The Quinacridone gold was next followed by reds and purples. Each layer is stamped, scraped, or textured in some way. A little gold and thick drops of acrylic were my finishing touches.