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Patterns Continue
Well, so it’s not just a flash in the pan. My fascination with patterns continues. I’m working on two more city snow pattern paintings, but they’re still in a very preliminary stage, so not much to show.
However, I just finished a painting based on reflections on water observed on a recent trip to California to visit my son. We spent one day at the California Academy of Sciences which has some great exhibits and, most especially for me, a terrific aquarium (multiple tanks which can be viewed from the sides, and above. It was mostly the “above” views that captivated me.
So, here’s my first painting based on the patterns in the water seen from above.
Reflections
I expect I’ll do at least a couple more similar paintings. This one was painted using Koi watercolors (which I love) on Strathmore cold press paper, which I don’t normally like, since I find it harder to get a smooth flat wash with Strathmore. But for this kind of painting with lots of variation in the washes, it worked well.
For the next one, I may try painting on Yupo which is a kind of plasticized paper (imagine painting on a white plastic plate). Yupo is great for a very loose painting, since it’s very hard to control the paint and it just sorta swims around on its own. You end up with a lot of unintended effects, some wonderful and some not so. Maybe I’ll try a small one as an experiment and see how it goes.
Then again, I’m heading on vacation to Costa Rica tomorrow so who knows what I’ll be captivated by when I return.
More Patterns in Abstract Watercolors
Lately I’m into patterns: patterns of the dirt in city snow, patterns of cloud shadows on rocks and snow, patterns of stripes and reflections. I’m starting to see everything in terms of patterns.
First I was captivated by patterns of dirt in city snow, so unlike the clean white stuff you see in magazines. Very little of city snow is white.
City Snow III
Then I started to get into the blue white and brown patterns formed by the intersections of cloud shadows on rocks and snow, not coincidentally along the West Side Highway. I pass them each week when we drive to and from our grocery shopping at Fairway. Somedays the sky and shadows are darker than others, but the endlessly varying pattern is what grabs me.
City Snow V
Couldn’t you picture that as being somewhere in the Alps? Nope. Just the West Side Highway in upper Manhattan.
Then I started getting into the patterns you see in the intersection of stripes (as in tablecloths) and highly reflective objects (as in expresso pots).
Red White and Gray
I’ve done a couple of paintings of this expresso pot where you could actually see where the stripes came from (the tablecloth) but I love this one, because it’s just about the patterns. It’s almost not a real object any more.
Yup. I’m loving’ this abstract stuff.
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