The canvas for “Gold Silver Bronze with Red Rectangles” overpainted random colour test brushmarks whilst making “Mashū”.

“Gold Silver Bronze with Red Rectangles” was very simple for me to produce. I am a fan of Rothko works alongside a whole genre of Abstract Expressionism painting that found much prevalence from the 1940/50’s onwards. Especially through New York.

Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning are amongst the major Abstract Expressionists of that era.

To me, personally, finding a balance between absolute minimalism in painting choices on a canvas with intricate technical detail is intellectually challenging.

Finding beauty.

Finding emotion. A connection to you as viewers of art like myself.

To me the chattering purr of raccoon kits is pure art.

Before going into further detail regarding “Gold Silver Bronze with Red Rectangles” I would like to share the unbelievable random brush mixing work for same here:

“Pure Chance Portrait #2” is literally just that!

100% pure chance.

Like the almost impossible portrait in Ridge Willow – Spirit of the Trees (top-centre of the landscape)! The latter portrait clearly understood as one individual person to me. I would guess anyone knowing her would agree, 100%.

The rotated image below of “Pure Chance Portrait #2” shows how I held the Notepad whilst mixing colours sitting astutely over my canvas. Top-left less deep red mixed with a greater quantity of white paint. Mid-right deep red mixed with black. Lower-left lighter greyish tones with fewer deep red tones.

Why use a paper Notepad?

I was in bed after midnight thinking about my “Gold Silver Bronze with Red Rectangles” canvas. Totally awake I needed to get to work on it. I figured that adding some deep red would look great. Working very early hours meant that ‘tomorrow’ (the same day after sleeping lol) I would have a dry canvas to continue progress with.

I wouldn’t actually need a further painting session after my past-midnight flurry! Hooray for artworks that be exactly as we wish for them to be.

After finishing the canvas I happily admired my own work for “Gold Silver Bronze with Red Rectangles”.

The pleasing effect of light. Contrasts. Depth. An archaeological idea happening whilst painting. Yes, the M is chance, it occurs quite naturally with some brush or pencil strokes really.

How I held the colour palette paper to mix paint:

I think the pinkish-red stripes you see were made whilst the Notepad was held in a different position. I never even thought to make any particular shapes whilst mixing.

After admiring my newly completed gold canvas I picked up the Notepad and realised, unexpectedly, I had 100% made the portrait of a woman by pure chance! Equally as improbably is the fact it’s pretty much correctly positioned on the paper.

Two works of art in one sitting.

Pure joy.