Experimenting with subjects and medium
Experimenting is the force behind creation of new art. I love experimenting. I think most artists try new materials and challenge themselves time to time. We cannot just paint one and the same subject in the same way all life. Life is too short not to find out what else is out there. In order to create these paintings, I have to try different medium options.
Experimenting with surfaces
I just found out that watercolor canvas is not my preferred surface because paint comes off much easier than it goes on, but it was interesting to try painting on this surface. It was quite a struggle to cheat the paint onto watercolor canvas. I had to wait until the first layer is completely dry and then try adding more paint. See how gorgeous it actually came out: Sunny still life, finished years later
Experimenting with medium
I’m combining acrylic ground, watercolor, pastel fixative and pastels in order to draw with pastels on a stretched canvas. While it is a multi-step process, the small canvas looks really good.
Disadvantage of using glass
I’m also stretching watercolor paper on bars, and I’m doing this because I don’t like how paintings look behind the glass. Frame contributes to perception of an image, but glass reflections definitely disturb it. I have watercolor paintings under museum quality glass, and there is still present reflection. It feels as if color and image are not directly approachable as with acrylic paintings.
First layers of acrylic paint in amaryllis painting
Challenges with any medium
I don’t think, there is any absolutely flawless medium. Pastels leave a lot of dust and cause respiratory problems. They need to be preserved immediately. Acrylic paintings are easy to store and hang, but paint dries out almost immediately, and any correction requires to go over a big area. Watercolor paintings on paper need to be preserved and framed. Glass, mat board and frame increase the selling price a lot.
My set-up is visible in the background
Avoiding necessity to frame art
My goal is to paint on any surface combining any mediums so that I don’t have to frame my paintings. To be honest, good frames look fantastic. However, framing many hundreds of paintings is very expensive and time-consuming. It is almost impossible at this point since there are too many paintings. Art buyers actually like paintings without frames. That allows them framing or not framing later, and using frames they prefer to.
Such art doesn’t require frame and can be used without it
Paintings in progress
None of these paintings is finished yet, but I like how they are coming out. I’m experimenting so far, but I will see soon what works the best. It’s also fun to use watercolor pencils, pastel pencils, pastel sticks, watercolor on canvas, on paper, on board and just take a risk. The result might be unpredictable, but I don’t think it’s going to be unacceptable. Painting from real set-up is also the way I like it. Update: please, see newer articles for all finished paintings.