pre shrunk

Details of Bold floral No.4 & 4A - 20 x 5 - acrylic & ink on plywood - Susan Black

This piece was created for a gallery submission for 4" x 5" art pieces called Pre-Shrunk hosted by the Argyle Fine Art, Barrington Street Halifax. Les deadline last night at midnight (I'm happy to report I was snug in my bed with my current book by 9:30). Of course I've known about it for a month or so, had the Prince ready my plywood canvas and have been madly doing mentals (meaning plenty of screeching gears sounds & smoke wafting from ears & nostrils :-) ever since. My intention all along was to be inspired by the looseness & colour of this piece - but my looseness became lost and my drawing tight - oh well. I continued on to the finish never-the-less. I really love it when I actually do these things I put on my "would really like to do" list. It's a juried show, so les Bold Floral No. 4 (les mutéd) may not be chosen but that's really not the point - the point is to mess around creatively, have fun, try some new things and cross off something on that brand new shiny 2013 "would love to do list" as opposed to only ever scratching off those must do's, to do's & gotta dos every day.

Bold floral No.4 - 20 x 5 - acrylic & ink on plywood - Susan Black

Bold floral No.4A - 20 x 5 - acrylic & ink on plywood - Susan Black

The original painting / drawing was created with my normal tres bright palette. The painting was done on a piece of 3/4 inch plywood cut (by the Prince) into a 20” x 5” piece, my intention was to paint a floral painting that I knew in the end would be cut into 5 pieces each 4” x 5” . Being a huge proponent of  the “scan as you go”  habit I scanned the bright finished piece before dulling the whole thing with a quick rub all over with a damp rag and a good blob of Golden liquid acrylic - Quinacrisone Nickel Azo Gold (truth be told I did none of this with any particular firm intention or knowledge ... I just knew after I scanned my original it was feeling a little too sweet, a little too bubble-gummy so I wondered what would happen if I dulled things down a bit ?) - & WOW it made a huge difference, I’m not at all sure which I prefer. I like them both, for different reasons I guess. But the damage (or dullness) is permanent, so should we make it into the Argyle Art Gallery - Pre Shrunk show Doug will cut this muted version into 5 - 4 x 5 pieces 

That's the cool thing about so much of the creative process - you just don't know or can't often predict the outcome & you have to learn to be OK with that - in fact you have to learn to look forward to the surprises.

I'm curious  ... favourites anyone ?? Muted or bright ??