13th Reflection

The edges of this painting again prove interesting - this time with what I term my 'icicles' forming and drying to produce mini sculptural forms: something I will develop in future work.

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By itself, I felt the composition felt rather empty thus exemplifying how I judge this type of work to operate effectively at different scales (a smaller square canvas would have enough visual interest for me using this recipe). And so after much deliberation I decided that another element needed to be introduced into this canvas and so I attached a plastic lid (a carefully chosen green) to be filled with the strawberry/salt solution.

The location of the lid was suggested by the way the mix had pooled in the last pouring giving a nicely off-centre, yet balanced position.

9th Return

Back from my hols on the 9th April - out of the taxi, up the stairs and into the kitchen, dropping my bags off on the way. Painting not completely dry but one more day with the central heating on in the evening and early morning should see it completed.



The painting is a lot more orange, and yellower around the edges where the egg white mix was applied, than when wet. This makes the colour less dramatic. Also, I'm not sure about the composition now; it seems to need more... but I don't want to 'fiddle' or over-complicate.

I'll return to it Saturday morning with fresh eyes.


P.S. Methinks I should have an exhibition called: 'Watching Paint Dry'.

4th Bridge

Painting obs just before I go away for my Easter break. You can see here the darker margin continuing to persist while the liquid in the centre of the pool has yet to dry - longer drying time often yields larger crystals.


The edges shown here provide a good example of the accidental (or hitherto incidental) places where the painting may be found. As the frame of mind in which I approached this work, in particular, was very open, it could be these edges provide the inspiration for future exploration.

3rd Layer

Bit of a flat day today so back to the painting.

> The left-hand side with the canvas is drying darker (and more purple) than the side with the printer paper, which is interesting and makes me think perhaps the canvas or its primer are more acidic or alkaline.

> I poured some more liquid strawberry/salt onto the surface of the canvas so forming a kind of pool. After having done this I wondered whether I should have as it disturbed the purplish margin of the canvas side - nevertheless the more liquid the larger the crystals. I do have an intuition that this painting is going to be successful and a move forward.

> The very edges of the painting are beginning to crystalise.

Second Coat

Back from meetings at the Uni and as a counter to a rather grey, drizzly day - more work on the painting:

> with the pink, egg white containing surround almost dry, I applied a red strawberry/salt layer all over, so that the margins were covered and the liquid began to pool in the centre, which was my intention (so that larger crystals will form there).

> currently uncertain as to what the difference will be to those areas underpinned by the printer paper sheet as opposed to the bare canvas but it may be that the vermillion colour is held more fast.

> hard to photograph the painting under neon light (I began work on it around 8pm) so I have provided a couple of images. You can see from these the beginning of compositional features.

> prepared a mix of salt/strawberry tops containing foliage as a separate liquid, but haven't used it as yet.


As always, look forward to seeing what happens next - I'm one of those odd people that finds watching paint dry fascinating.

'I'm painting, I'm painting again'

As the song says*


Just for the hell of it rapidly assembled a painting:

> glued an A4 sheet of printer paper to the right-hand side of a square canvas. Placed canvas flat and face up on my kitchen table, wooden supports and newspaper underneath.

> took half of the strawberry/salt mix I prepared a couple of days ago and whisked it with three egg whites to produce a pink froth (idea I've had for a while - want to see if the egg-white gives a more viscous, therefore more crystal-encouraging medium). Mixture was pinker than I had anticipated. The fried egg yolk sandwiches were delicious.

> applied pink froth to the edges of the canvas (see photos).

> will revisit tonight.



* 'Artists Only' by Talking Heads

'I'm painting, I'm painting again.
I'm painting, I'm painting again.
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning again.
I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning my brain...'