Mercury Painting

This is an acrylic painting on panel (1/4" thick Eucaboard mounted to a custom built frame). Panel provides an extremely smooth surface for paint application. The painting is 'wrapped' around the edges of the frame to provide visual interest from all angles. Flat, smooth areas of color are punctuated with thicker lines of paint applied with a palette knife. Gloss varnish is applied to protect the painted surface and edges and to keep the colors as brilliant as when first applied. Hardware for hanging is provided. In this series of paintings I have attempted to move beyond a literal depiction of landscape into a more abstract expression of the natural environment, emphasizing movement and energy through the use of color, line and form. I begin each piece with a digital sketch, layering transparent shapes that mimic simplistic clouds, hills and valleys or ocean waves. Lines that emanate from and slice through the central body animate the scene. Rhythmic repetitions of swelling shapes, like a visual representation of music, at times advance right off the pictorial edge, suggesting a continuation of form beyond what is visible; the sharp shapes, a counterpoint to the flowing undulations of the rest of the composition. I choose color gradually and intentionally, using contrasting values and gradients to reference generalized light and shadow, and imply depth with illusions of transparency. A final figure emerges; an abstract representation of the resilient energy contained in a body of water or earth. Hovering in an atmosphere of radiant light, it pliably harmonizes with the vigorous forces imposed upon it by its surrounding environment.