This weekend was too nice outside to stay in and paint. The springlike weather I've been craving for, for so long, is truly finally here, and I thought best to spend it outdoors rather than in. But, to start off the month of May, I thought that I would do something very simple to post and I started these two small abstract painting a few days ago. There's not a lot of thought that went into these but rather what colors should I use to make them look pleasing to the eye. As I was looking at my two drawers of paint tubes, I spent a little bit of time looking through them, picking up the paint tubes and reading the colors on the labels. I was looking to find colors that went well together. I chose to use mostly warm colors and added a cool color by way of a bright turquoise to give it a punch of color. Just to give you an idea how I did this, I painted the entire canvas and its sides black. Then I used two plastic putty knives in two different sizes and made bold strokes with lots of thick paint that was added and mixed with molding paste on to the canvas. I then varnished both paintings several times to get a high gloss finish on them. I used the varnish straight from the container, no mixing with water and I noticed it has a glass like finish on it, which is what I like about it. Surprisingly, they are drying relatively fast but still feel tacky to the touch, so it will take a few days to completely dry. These two paintings were a joy to paint and they seem to look good too.
