Small vessel on a watery floating sphere

[john]

I think I have love/hate relationship with acrylics. I wanted to be able to quickly layer here without disturbing the lower layers so I chose acrylics. I grumbled as I took them out "damn acrylics now I have to make sure to not let it dry on the brushes, they're going to make a mess of everything, who knows how they will dry, I shouldn't use my good watercolor brushes, why won't these paints mix together? grrrr" etc. I was a little cranky.

Then as the painting progressed - quickly I must admit- I started to grudgingly admit they are pretty good at some things. I mostly used a plastic spackle knife for this.

C&C welcome. The yellow/orange blobs in the sky are to add interest and make people wonder what the heck they are. I don't know so don't ask me.

14x20 inches on Arches CP

 

[E.J.H.]

They are clearly bumblebees.

 

[Mississippi Hippie]

its some time of water treatment plant..

 

[Martin C]

I like this a lot. The green blocky foreground works really well and my eye is drawn to the luminous yellow mountain before appreciating the great looping brushstrokes in the sky above. The smallness of the boat helps to produce a dramatic sense of scale and danger in spite of the sunny day. Maybe the yellow things are drones keeping an eye on the boat while it crosses the raging sea passage.

Acrylics can be tricky but a stay-wet palette is a good investment. I always use stiffish brushes with acrylic. I find when applied at full strength it just clogs up the more flexible brush types and clings on (and dries on the brush).

 

[Enyaw]

I find it too intense in color with the different parts of the whole pushing for attention. My opinion only of course

 

[Artyczar]

Beautiful. I think the rowboat guy makes it! I love your work!

 

[Dave Woody]

I can't do brilliant work like this and...I don't need to ... you do it ...

 

[john]

They are clearly bumblebees.

Yes! That's clearly what they are, how did I not know that! Thanks!

I guess it's one of those hair-brained ideas I get. The painting wasn't eccentric enough without them I guess.

 

[john]

its some time of water treatment plant..

With bumblebees !

 

[john]

I like this a lot. The green blocky foreground works really well and my eye is drawn to the luminous yellow mountain before appreciating the great looping brushstrokes in the sky above. The smallness of the boat helps to produce a dramatic sense of scale and danger in spite of the sunny day. Maybe the yellow things are drones keeping an eye on the boat while it crosses the raging sea passage.

Acrylics can be tricky but a stay-wet palette is a good investment. I always use stiffish brushes with acrylic. I find when applied at full strength it just clogs up the more flexible brush types and clings on (and dries on the brush).

Glad you like it Martin. I wanted to do something simple after the previous complicated painting project.

Yeah I have one of those stay wet pallet boxes that alternately has oils or watercolors or acrylics or gouache in it. I would probably help if I stayed with one and actually learned it.

 

[john]

I find it too intense in color with the different parts of the whole pushing for attention. My opinion only of course

You don't like intense colors and gaudy paintings Wayne? I would never have guessed. Yeah it's about as high chroma as it can be. I thought it was cool how the dark blue contrasts with the bright yellow for maximum contrast and pop. Reminds me of the saturated glowing colors in Brian Rutenburg's paintings. Not something I would hang in the living room though.

 

[john]

Beautiful. I think the rowboat guy makes it! I love your work!

Thanks Ayin. The rowboat/canoeing guy is becoming a trend in my latest paintings. It's a cheap way to make some kind of narrative of some sort lol.

 

[john]

I can't do brilliant work like this and...I don't need to ... you do it ...

Awwww..... thanks Dave. That's so nice. You do your own brilliant work.

 

[Enyaw]

You don't like intense colors and gaudy paintings Wayne? I would never have guessed.

I do but I like areas of rest. You gotta have ugly to see beautiful. Saying that, the last piece I made is reminiscent of this as it is mostly pure hues. Not important what I like as it's your work of art. I do love the treatment in the sky.

 

[CaliAnn]

Love that yellow pop and the bold color choices!

 

[Terri]

I like this very much! Your blues are gorgeous, and you did a fine job with that palette knife. It worked beautifully here, it's very dramatic. Great job!

 

[john]

I do but I like areas of rest. You gotta have ugly to see beautiful. Saying that, the last piece I made is reminiscent of this as it is mostly pure hues. Not important what I like as it's your work of art. I do love the treatment in the sky.

I know what you are saying, thank you, and I'm not being defensive, I know it's a bit garish and maybe too uniform? minimalist? but look at this painting by Kandinsky. Color all over, no eye rest and where is the center of interest? This one can give the viewer motion sickness. But I love Kandinsky and this painting. Maybe when it's an abstract just about all the rules and conventions go out the window.

But please don't take this the wrong way. I respect your input and I'm just putting this out there as a point of discussion. This whole "art" thing is very confusing and it helps me to talk about this stuff.

 

[laika]

I love it, John! And the Chinese surveillance balloons are a very timely touch.

Edit: Brings Heckel's Glass Day to mind:

 

[Artyczar]

I love that you bring up that Kandinsky. You are right about it not having any area of focus. And who cares? It has areaS of interest and expresses way more than one thing, which is fine. Anything does. There are no rules. True art breaks rules. And some artists needed to break rules more than others.

When I was super young and I first was attracted to his work, I thought he was visually expressing what he could not say in words, perhaps even protesting about what it was like to grow up in Russia, i.e., his hopes and dreams, etc. After a while, the meaning behind the work did not matter and I just studied the colors, shapes, compositions, etc. I still love his work, but I began a deeper leaning towards Klee for his childlike purity/less mathematical approach. Not that they should be compared, but had I not got into Kandinsky, I would not have found Klee, or the rest of the Blue Riders.

 

[john]

I love that you bring up that Kandinsky. You are right about it not having any area of focus. And who cares? It has areaS of interest and expresses way more than one thing, which is fine. Anything does. There are no rules. True art breaks rules. And some artists needed to break rules more than others.

When I was super young and I first was attracted to his work, I thought he was visually expressing what he could not say in words, perhaps even protesting about what it was like to grow up in Russia, i.e., his hopes and dreams, etc. After a while, the meaning behind the work did not matter and I just studied the colors, shapes, compositions, etc. I still love his work, but I began a deeper leaning towards Klee for his childlike purity/less mathematical approach. Not that they should be compared, but had I not got into Kandinsky, I would not have found Klee, or the rest of the Blue Riders.

Interesting observation about Kandinsky being mathematical. Yeah his work is abstract but seems engineered. Perhaps because of how he saw his painting related to music gave it a certain order and composition like a musical score.

And yes Klee seems more playful and less serious. A little more fun. I think I like Klee a little more also. I think I prefer just a little more representational in paintings which Klee seems to have. Fully abstract paintings I find less satisfying.

Glad you brought up the Blue Rider Group. I had heard of them but didn't know much. Made me look into them further. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Blaue_Reiter

In that group was this woman painter I had not heard of Marianne von Werefkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_von_Werefkin

I like her paintings. They seem like magic realism which a genre that I find fascinating. And August Macke.....I really like the look of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Macke