Thread by @CMichaelGibson

Text message from friend in California:

“Could you do a large abstract painting / splatter to match my horse and the colors in my living room”

Me: “It is 90 degrees out & perfect weather to do a splatter painting which allows the layers to dry quickly. I’ll start immediately!”

The first thing we need to do is cover up that sterile soul less white canvas.

Let’s quickly throw down some acrylic paint which dries really quick and allows us to lay down lots of layers ...

20 years of splatter / drip painting has taught me that the key to a good painting is knowing when to STOP ✋

It’s best to stop when you have the right balance of colors, size of drips, balance of shapes and a perfectly randomly random assembly of all the above.

Note: that is the painting of her horse she wants me to match not my painting of the horse ... 🤣🤣🤣

If you do a good abstract under a splatter painting you can stop earlier once the rhythm and shapes and fractal nature of the splatter is right. Otherwise you are endlessly trying to cover a white canvas with paint color & the canvas can’t hold all that paint and tears! #cmgsays

So now we have a first layer of acrylic down to cover up that boring white lifeless canvas. We used colors to match her gray tones, and earth tones in her horse.

Next we need to do a good abstract painting that has some form a rhythm to it that could stand out in its own.

Let’s get out some tools to do some of the abstract painting that will be under the splatter

I’m going to use the ones on the right side

We will now use some whites, tans, browns, golds, greys, and blacks to make a bunch of little abstracts like what I do for #namethatpainting

We will focus a lot on the periphery since that won’t be covered by splatters ...

Starting to lay down the abstract painting

To do the abstract painting I allow all the colors on the palette to mix.

By creating random mixtures of paint, each stroke of the palette knife is unique

I put more paint on the palette ... some ended up on my iPhone...

Yes, an iPhone makes a good palette knife. 🤣

4 colors on my giant palette knife at once: white, beige, grey and sienna

So after a long day in 90 degree heat, I have the underpainting done

I will splatter on top of this tomorrow

It could be a nice painting on its own

A section on left, full thing on right (hard to appreciate all the little strokes though)

I call this “automatic painting” ... it’s a bit like “automatic writing” where you don’t think and letters and words come out. I don’t think about where the strokes should go. They just go where they are supposed to go.

This was the perfect day:

Gracie G got me Starbucks
I ate butter with a little bit of homemade banana bread for breakfast
I was so exhausted by the carbs I had to nap at 8AM
Painted next to Charles River all day
Ate Rhubarb pie & ice cream
Watching art restorations on YouTube

I’m calling this painting Bemsha Swing after my favorite @KeithJarrettOrg song on his 1991 Album The Cure open.spotify.com/track/0DnpCJyI…