Author: AmyPaint

Paintings demand time—time working on them and time away from them. Taking a visual absence from artwork in progress enhances the critical review process by allowing your eyes to recalibrate to a more neutral state.

Absence makes the eyes grow stronger.

But what if instead of waiting weeks to review unfinished paintings you waited months…or even years? What happens when your starting point is no longer a blank canvas but somewhere in the middle?

The unfinished “in-limbo” paintings used to create this miniseries were in my studio storage for nearly a decade.

The original canvas is shown first alongside the final painting.

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In the first of this two-part miniseries, I have moved away from applying paint to stretched-cotton canvas opting instead for surfaces with inherent tactile and visual appeal triggering an optical tug-of-war by placing surface and paint on equal footing.

For part one, the existing 30″ x 40″ canvas frame has been wrapped with 8oz black faux leather and the paint used is metallic acrylic.

 

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Part two of this miniseries was inspired by luxury retail store display cases. The painting surface is a smooth, highly reflective, color-infused 12″ x 18″ acrylic panel with polished edging.

The use of metallic acrylic paint, also highly reflective, creates a dynamic polychromatic surface encouraging interaction as paint colors actively shift depending on one’s viewing angle.

 

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This miniseries was inspired by the sights and sounds of summertime.

 

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This miniseries was inspired by the wheat-paste street art found throughout New York City. I love how the random advertising visuals and torn type mix with drawings and graffiti. These evolving art pieces exist in a state of flux often at risk of destruction or removal. That urgency is what makes them seem so rightfully at home in the city.

For this miniseries I’ve scaled down to a 12″ x 12″ canvas size to elicit a more intimate visual space. The paint used is acrylic gouache which dries with a velvety, matte finish.

 

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This miniseries is based on the idea of transfer. In the early stages, the canvas panels are created as individual paintings. These canvas units are then combined together and worked on as a two (diptych) panel or three (triptych) panel painting.

In the final stage of the painting process, the panels are rearranged again and joined together relying on color transfers from canvas to canvas to create a sense of unity.

 

Select any painting below to enter the portfolio.

Please click on the cat icon to better visualize the painting’s scale.

To exit, simply click the thumbnail icon.