Kinetic 20 - 02 Painting

The kinetic series celebrates a uniform approach to Blake’s painterly process. His focus on repetition, pattern, and movement shows a more restrained technique influenced by his time in NYC. “I developed my kinetic painting process before I ever thought of even a portion of my art practice being process driven. I think making my own paints, collecting raw pigments, seeking out odd fine art materials is a big part of applying a process to my passions for abstract painting. I very much get into a groove with larger / huge canvases... 9 feet by 12 feet... if I paint 3,4,5 of those in a row I really feel it. With much smaller canvases I felt the need for a uniform approach that would produce infinitely different results - hence my Kinetic Series. First started in 2010 when I got my first adult apartment in Manhattan. Going back and forth from Los Angeles, I needed a way to approach painting almost entirely indoors, on smaller canvases (for the most part.) In LA the vast majority of canvases start outside, working with the sun to set those initial dozen layers of paint, plaster, pigment. I guess the pattern could be described as a group of multi pointed stars and several almost broken chevron lines. The kinetic series was a process to prevent “writer's block/ painters block” in the confines of a NYC apartment. My chevron reference is referring to my textile science classes in college, also in NYC, at F.I.T. There’s hardly a more manmade texture in our lives that warp and weft. Learning that “CHEVRON” is actually a type of weave, not just a petrol company was an eye opener for me at 19 in that first textile science course.” The majority of kinetic series patterns are applied sans brush, directly from a tube of oil paint, a pot of tempera, or an oil stick. Sand, wax, and dye based temperas are used to build up the underpainting.