When I was painting the latest alley I began by trailing paint brushes of indigo and sepia across a very wet paper to outline the general shapes of the alley floor and the buildings on either side of it. After maybe two sittings for this I had this and I just loved it, it just seemed so open and full of possibilities. I wanted to bring that to the finished product, but it didn't work. I had to impose the buildings and the alley, reality on it, and all that possibility was lost.
Now that I have all my sixteen paintings ready to hang at the Ten Cat this Friday I had a little painting time on my hands and no idea where to go next, so I began with this one.
I wet the whole paper down and trailed sepia over it, let that dry for a day and wet it again and trailed indigo over it, then the same with burnt sienna. Then some hooker's green and perylene maroon and at this point the paper was plain wore out, lumpy and uneven and sometimes it would take paint and sometimes it would not. What the hell, I spread gum arabic all over it and that seemed to make it better, and it seems like now it has reached a point where nothing stains, which is something I like. I have gone over and over it adding burnt yellow, leaf green, and quinacridone rose, just following the lights and darks and shapes. not thinking ahead and not thinking twice. Sometimes it is so wet and dark I can't even tell how the paint is going down, working with muscle memory.
I just wanted to see what would happen. And here it is:
