Early 2020 Paintings

I slowed down a bit on painting toward the end of last year, and then I started a few canvasses that got me stuck a bit. I am plodding slowly through those, trying out some ideas. In the meantime I wanted to get back to the explorations I had abandoned last year, just playing with mineral pigments and wild fungus spores, blending inks and seeing what they make when they meet each other. When I do these playground style experiments, I try to pay attention to what works and what doesn’t work. Alas, most of what I do seems to be in the negative category. The worst of them get re-purposed for practice in layering with acrylics, other techniques. Here are a few ink adventures that seemed interesting from early February, 2020.

Blue Canyon – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17 [SOLD]
Contrasts 1 – 10 Feb 2020 – 11×14
Contrasts 2 – 10 Feb 2020 – 11×14
Curtain – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17
Skin – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17
Spore Forest 1 – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17
Spore Forest 2 – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17
Corona – 10 Feb 2020 – 14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore1-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore2-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore3-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore4-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore5-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore6-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore7-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore8-14×17
7Mar20-SumiSpore9-11×14
7Mar20-Colors18x24
7Mar20-SumiBlue1-11×14
7Mar20-SumiBlue2-11×14
7Mar20-SumiBlue3-11×14
7Mar20-SumiBlue4-11×14
7Mar20-SumiBlue5-11×14
7Mar20-SumiBlue6-11×14
Layers 1 – 14March20 – 14×17″ inks and acrylic on paper
Layers 2 – 14March20 – 14×17″ inks and acrylic on paper

I consider the next two canvasses to be among my more successful acrylics yet. In general I have been struggling to get the same spontaneity with acrylic as I seem to get with ink, but these seemed to capture best what I am aiming for.

Root 1 – 14March20 – 16×20″ acrylic on canvas [SOLD]
Root 2 – 14March20 – 16×20″ acrylic on canvas

A few more inks on paper. I was not happy with some brightly colored attampts, which I am not showing here. The best were smaller size, with fewer colors.

BlackBlue 11×14-Mountains1
BlackBlue 11×14-Mountains2
BlackBlue 11×14-Mountains3
BlackBlue-14×17-sectionDrip
Rust BlackBlueWings (18×24)
RustBlackBlue 11×14-marbled

These next four “Terraforms” really belong in a different series, along with the other acrylics on canvas. These have a lot of impasto texture with a thick bull-up of gesso. The various acrylics might get arranged in a different category soon. Note that three of the four below are now sold (as of July 2020)

Terraform-Blue (16×20 April 2020) – SOLD
Terraform-BoneBlue (16×20 April 2020) – SOLD
Terraform-Islands (18×24 April 2020) – SOLD
Terraform-Sand (18×24 April 2020) – SOLD
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