Aeolian

This is one of my favorites in this series.

While working on Proxemics, I spilt half a bottle of acrylic ink all over my art desk. Again. In an attempt to salvage some of it, I created an ink blot on another 6″ canvas to use as the backdrop for a later painting. I knew it would be perfect for this. Black, white, and blue.

Simple paintings are deceptively difficult. The beauty is in the simplicity, which means the fewer strokes, the less reworking, the better. Rarely is that first pass exactly what you want, but additional shaping destroys the fluidity and smoothness. Acrylic paint dries insanely fast, so it can cake together, and might be too late to reshape at all. I was able to get the look I wanted without too much reworking, and I used air itself to create the shape of the blue.

Every painting is a different experience, like a piece of music. Most of my paintings begin with a general idea, and meander through different stages before coming together. Some of them, or portions of some, are completely absorbing and mindless, which is relaxing. With abstracts, there’s a flow and presence to creating that doesn’t happen with the more complex pieces. This piece is a reminder of presence and simplicity; of not overthinking, of the knowledge that intuitive abstracts can be some of the best.

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Fun fact: our dog’s name is Aelo, which comes from this word/meaning.