Over a period of days, and more, contemplating a concept for a painting forming itself in mind without picking up a pencil. too complex to draw.
Being an imagined combination of paint methods, multi-leveled structure, both abstract and figurative, and aerial perspective potentially unified as one. Intending to express 'a wave of love' across the earth. Rather a tall order, and it can't be said i wasn't aiming high.
Until, unsurprisingly, considering the elements involved and how to combine them into a communicable painterly image without falling into the cliche of a literal illustrative depiction, it became clear that it was as unresolvable on its own terms as a Zen koan, and i was none the wiser.
So, subsequently becoming thoroughly bored with the impasse of urgently asking another unanswerable question and for want of something creative to do, thinking to do something semi-abstract, coated a canvas with cobalt blue.
Before the paint was even dry, and with a washed wet brush, carelessly without clear intention,wiping away in places down to the bare canvas. unformed and crude as it's possible to be, cloud shapes, tree shapes, horizon of hill shapes and a round smear in the centre that might be a moon.
Only later attempting to modify what was a vague and amorphous mess of blue, another seemingly impossible task, one with little chance of success, given the indelibly hard to eradicate nature of the pigment of cobalt. If you paint over it, it still comes through, even turns pale blue to brown, some chemical reaction hard to get around, and the vast difference of colour between electric light and daylight.
But there it is, a glimpse at least, of 'Blue Lunar Icon' and how it came to be. Hope to find a way to make what's within the completed painting more visibly accessible and do it justice. Who knows, might even make sense of these admittedly downright contrary alien robotics.
P.S. So i called on my next door neighbour who happens to be in the computer business, and he kindly showed me how to crop the painting, which i then did. Simply a matter of knowing the procedure, otherwise hard to guess. What a relief. }
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Martin Rainbowmaker
