Studio Time

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I had an idea for a new image. This is it. At least, this is the beginning.

I know, the first thought that probably comes to mind is “Why the hell would anyone do something like that to a poor, defenseless canvas?”

I intend to generate this image from paint. I wanted consistently sized forms on the canvas. I suppose I could have drawn a grid or filled this thing with row after row of circles. That would have been horribly restrictive and this seemed like a more expressive way of defining things. The forms are roughly the same size and the letter shapes will probably inform the final forms. I have no intention of doing typography here but I’m sure a few elements of the letters will make their way into the final image.

The scribble? It’s to hold things together and begin relationships between the letters. Some of that will probably make its way into the final image as well.

This is done with pastels on unprimed canvas, mounted on a 30×40 inch piece of hardboard. Pastels work wonderfully on raw canvas. You can go through an entire stick in no time though. Raw canvas holds a lot of pigment.

The poem… is nonsense. It does mention toadstools.

(Canvases are hardly “defenseless”.)