Luckily, I have no ambitions to be a photorealist painter! For, me, it’s all about the interpretation; the ‘what’s going on here?’ of the image and the conditions that gave rise to it. The frameworks in this instance were cosmology, meteorology, and ceiling of the world which is arguably a more metaphysical notion and most likely drove the colours I chose to underpin the painting. As a result it began to put me in mind of classical ceilings populated by deities of various kinds.

This time I began with a clean canvas and, using inks, dilute paint, and watercolour pencil, I mapped out comparable shapes and areas of light, dark, and colour. These would structure and underpin the next layers.

Of course as we all know now, my major problem is not quitting before I kill a painting dead and I think we’re teetering on the edge of that now. I’d like to liven up a little of the under-colour and pop some unadulterated white into the bright areas near the bottom. With restraint though.

The painting has a feel of Christy Lee Rogers’ photos so maybe I’ll revisit those for some thoughts.

21st May. Lets’s see how that’s going …

I’m using a fan brush to make the trails and wherever there’s white, I can apply ink later. I also spend quite a bit of time rubbing paint off with a rough rag. This exposes canvas texture which in turn allows a smidgen of light into the whole. I’m not sure Lee Rogers’ work enabled restraint, though, and I have some darkening to do here and there.

It’s quite shiny (acrylic paint) which doesn’t really help bring out the colours in depth. My eye in the studio sees it differently. I also see three globes lower mid-right which I certainly didn’t intend but which are going to stay because anyone who’s read Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem will know not to mess with them.

Compensation in PaintshopPro diminishing shine, darkening the dark areas, and removing the background. This is close to what I see when I can reduce the shine physically.

SCH 2024

Liu, Cixin, (2008). The Three Body Problem. Head of Zeus 2014. Serialised, translated, many-times published, and also made into films and series’. One of these did a remarkable job of handling the material, the other was abysmal.