Surprise, Surprise!

I was more than a little surprised yesterday when, as my husband walked through my art studio, he stopped to comment favorably upon a recent acrylic work. It was this 10″ x 10″ canvas:

I’m calling it my “Rose Garden.” So, for a moment, please, use a little imagination, Let’s pretend it is a rose garden. Surely you can see the beautiful red roses, and you can see the green leaves and stems. Maybe you can even feel the warmth of the sun coming through these bright colors.

This painting is a bit of a hybrid. It’s not exactly an acrylic pouring, but neither is it an acrylic painting… exactly. It’s fluid art, but fluid art with a specific design intention behind it. In other words, I wanted it to look like bright red flowers.

I’ve come to a point in my studies of acrylic pourings where it’s time to experiment with many different approaches, one of which is creating actual things with the paint, at least in a somewhat abstract way. When you first see this artwork, red roses growing in a garden might not be your first thought, but after knowing that it’s supposed to be flowers blooming, you can probably see them there. You might like them or you might not. The point is you can probably — probably — agree that these are flowers, and maybe — maybe — you’ll go so far as to agree with me that they’re roses.

I think I was actually a little surprised that this turned out as representational as it did. I’ve previously tried a few other “intentional acrylic pourings” and the results were nothing like they were supposed to be. So, with this one, I began with a hopeful attitude while at the same time never really promising myself any rose gardens.

All in all, it was a pleasant surprise. I was disappointed in that I didn’t have any strong development of cells in the painting despite using silicone oil and applying heat. I have moved up now to a better grade of flow medium, and I could tell a definite difference in the consistency of my paints.

In case you’re curious, these are the colors I used:

• Red Apple
• Bright Red
• Flamenco Red
• Kelly Green
• Limeade

This is, of course, a good example of a complementary color scheme. 

I mixed each color in a separate cup, and poured them onto the canvas individually. I moved the paint around a bit with a blow dryer, and I used craft sticks to create a few “leafy” effects.

Doing this project was both fun and meaningful. Painting colorful flowers in a loose, impressionistic, abstract way was an enjoyable experience. Much of “fluid art” is accidental, but it can sometimes be intentional, as well. Perhaps we could call this an “intentional accident” or a “purposeful accident.”

Whatever we call it, this fluid art painting made me happy. I like the bright colors. I like the idea behind the image. And most of all I liked hearing my husband remark that he liked it too. He’s never been a fan of anything at all abstract, but it seems that my pourings are winning him over.

Surprise, surprise! I never thought that day would come.