Hello wonderful Merrimack River Painters
AND Hello 2020
By DUSTAN KNIGHT
This has been a year of growth and creativity for many of us. Sometimes we have produced great art work and sometimes we have just gotten better as people. Hopefully both.
I have gotten excited about a new process that has become quite popular on the internet called "pouring acrylics". Simply put, it is mixing acrylic paint with an extender (painting medium) and drips of silicon. The silicon resists the paint and creates lovely 'cells' of complementary colors.
It's a look that is difficult to control and visually enchanting.
Naturally, after doing a hundred or more of these - I became restless and began to actually pour the paint! Inspired by one of my favorite artists Pat Steir (Greenwich Village, NYC).
It's pretty darned much crazy fun!
This approach is a nice contrast to the heavily impasto 'Birch Series' I worked on last winter. I have filled cheap ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles with various color mixtures of paint and extra medium - and the process of applying the paint is delightful and bold.
The 'Back Channel' Series combined the impasto with the pouring methods. The actual surface of the artwork becomes a symphonic combination of fast, slow, controlled and random elements.
It has been a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to creating artwork never seen before during this new year.
