SPAWNING ABSTRACTS – OIL PAINTING

Being in the middle of projects I didnt have much to show today, so here is a set of old paintings I never put on the blog. I called them The Upside of Down. This was the first I sold. Below is the second one sold.

They came from one picture, it was oil on paper. I treated the ordinary, 90lb watercolour paper with a mix of exterior emulsion and PVA. This prevents the oil from sinking into the paper – rather like rabbit skin gesso. Here is the completed piece with me taking a rest – if you take a nap always put an open book on your lap; you appear productive.

I have my doubts about the vertical lines and because the paper was only 90lb it started to tear with the weight of the paints and gesso. So I cut it up and sold it like pieces of cake.

Here is another cut off the old block which has since found a new home:

I think I sold another one as well and still have a couple more available. It might be an exercise worth repeating. It is a variation on selecting a favourite passage of a painting and developing another from it and also the size allows some big gestures even if a few of them aren’t very nice.

Other abstracts, including the last few Upsides of Down are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

THE UPSIDE OF DOWN 4 – OIL ON PAPER

Well, it’s a bit of a cheat, but I have just been adjusting this painting. I painted this a few years ago. It was a big piece so I decided to cut it up. I sold one slice a couple of years ago – a bit like pizza. The other week I sold another two. So I was going through my work and looked at it again with the intention of glazing it as I had  glazed the two I had just sold and they looked so much better. I felt the original was a bit unbalanced, so I added some more colours in the top left and middle. It looks more coherent now and when the paint dries I’ll get  the dammar varnish out again.

Other abstracts are available on my website grahammcquadefineart.com