The Birth of a New Work:
Paintings are initiated without any idea of what it will or should become. I rest my assertions on chance and have found that for me, in art, beauty and harmony often come most easily through happenstance. Therefore, I am heavily reliant on my instincts and an action-style painting technique that allow me to spontaneously project my immediate conscious and subconscious mind via free-flowing gestural line(s) onto canvas.
Typically, a very runny paint consistency is used to give me the flexibility to get these lines down on canvas rapidly and without having to stop and "reload" the brush. In a matter of a few hours, the fate of a work is sealed (that is, unless it is completely “white-washed” and begun all over again) and I now have what I use as my template.
The Development:
Working loosely at first and then tightening up any "happy" accidental nuances that emerge on their own, I continue to manipulate these "template" line(s) until they reach a point of becoming mildly recognizable towards some significant form(s) deserving of further attention. These form(s) are usually created while constantly turning the canvas. Doing so invites new form(s) and realizations, as well as keeps bringing forth new challenges that ensures the painting will keep from becoming stagnant.
Around this point, I turn my attention to carefully sorting out various themes and compositional structures. Opening up new forms and ignoring others that have less potency or relevancy towards the ultimate harmony of the work is what matters most at this stage. Overworking a canvas is extremely easy- efficiency is the key. "Less is best." During this stage I also turn my focus to how these new forms divide space and seek to maintain a divisional efficiency and balance.
Oftentimes, color is applied wet-on-wet and mixed directly on canvas. These colors sometimes are just used to enhance forms that show promise or bring about new forms altogether. Piling color on top of color allows me to creating a sense of depth and perspective. Color is a tool I also use very precisely to further balance forms and create their spatial reference. Also through layering paint, I can achieve a wonderful way of creating complex intermediary colors otherwise impossible to make. House paint dries very quickly and in a matter of several minutes I can reclaim a lost form or enhance another. I enjoy using all three primary colors in most of my compositions, plus a strict and complicated balancing act of white and black hues.
Conclusion:
From an extreme explosive and impulsive beginning through progressive layering and re-layering to a planned construction and eventual dénouement- I finally shift my efforts towards refining the edges of the forms I wish to be more prominent. Those forms not receiving any edge treatment keep their rougher/ smoother features and subtleness that lends these forms to acting as background noise/ negative space driving a very efficient way of producing depth.
In the end, my aim is to fulfill this unbridled exploration of abstraction with the goals of achieving efficiency and harmony. Less is best; gravity undetermined- line absolved- unit