Monday, December 3, 2018

Auction Art - ZOOM and Thanksgiving - big art


-->

Lot 141
In 2010, my divorce was finalized, the big house sold, my elderly mother moved out into a retirement home, my Braun recording finished… I still had my Tacoma pick up truck and could fit an 8 foot canvas in the back.

I brought a store-bought one home (I usually stretch/prime them myself) and went outside to shoot paint all over it from squirt bottles, the idea being to make a good background for a large (4’ x 8’) landscape.

I started by splashing wet acrylic on the canvas and spreading rapidly with big sea sponges, then waiting a bit for it to dry and doing the next layer.

HOWEVER, the moment I finished the last pirouetting, air-flung squirt of  black paint, I thought  it looked fantastic. So active yet so transparent.  So I set it up in the corner of the overpriced loft I was renting, resolving to think about it before proceeding further.  And it stayed that way, becoming a backdrop for a photo shoot of a beautiful singer by a well-known photographer and the title work for the 2014 show.

So many people say they love it, and it has been expensive. I also do not have a single 8 foot expanse of wall in my new house. So it is in the auction and I hope one of the people who love it will marry it.




photo by Dawn McLeod

Lot 140
I had a quiet day on Thanksgiving, 2010 before heading out to visit parents in different towns.  I hand stretched a canvas and primed it, then did a heavy layer of very soft, sky-inspired blues, grays and pinks…. Uncharacteristic but I enjoyed it.  Paused for a second, then began writing quickly in the heavy paint, pouring out words of thanksgiving to people who would have been shocked if the words were visible… writing fast and furious, layers of sentences piling upon sentences until it was a torrent of invisible lines.  Then I let it dry…. And went nuts with the brightly coloured paints in my squirt bottles.  So much for soft and subtle sky shades!

photo by Dawn McLeod



No comments: