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| Moving Up by April M Rimpo |
Moving Up
Fluid Acrylic on varnished gallery wrapped paper
24" X 14"
$925
Moving Up was created by pouring fluid acrylic paint on watercolor paper. This image was designed to be gallery wrapped, where the image of the cliffs wraps around the edges. As a result no frame should be used with this painting. The artwork becomes part of your room as it projects 1.75" off the surface of the wall.
I built up the depth of color of the cliff and the rock climber's form through progressively darker layers of poured acrylic. I thin out the fluid acrylic to be much like a thin wash of watercolor so I can gradually build transparent layers. Masking fluid is applied to block out areas that I want to retain from each pouring.
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| Detail of Cliff |
I especially like areas where the difference in value (The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value: black is the darkest.) is minuscule between layers allowing me to create very subtle and interesting patterns, like in this closeup detail of the cliff.
At the bottom of the post I've added three photographs of the painting I took during its evolution so you can see how the painting changes from an abstract, to a shadow of the figure, to a more developed figure and cliff. Three layers of mask and paint were applied when the third photograph was taken. An additional three or four layers were needed to finish the painting and add some finishing touches.
I'm very proud of the fact that Moving Up was accepted by juror Linda Doll in the
23rd Annual ISEA (International Society of Experimental Art) International Art Exhibition. You can see it from September 13th to October 12th, 2014 at the National Watercolor Society Gallery in San Pedro, CA.
It was also included in North Light Publications Best of Acrylic book, AcrylicWorks3: Celebrating Textures.
You can see another painting of rock climber in my post The Apex. That painting was created using fluid acrylic and watercolor, but the paint was not poured.
April, let me be the first to congratulate you! Thanks for explaining the process, and I'm impressed that this was done with acrylic pours. It turned out to be a great painting. Wonderful exhibition to get into!
ReplyDeleteI am really excited about getting into this exhibit. I didn't plan to enter, but Linda Baker suggested at dinner that we should all consider entering. I was surprised at that comment and decided to look at the ISEA website again. I thought about what I was doing with acrylic and knew it was experimental for me, so why not try. What a surprise to get accepted.
DeleteCongratulations April! It's a fantastic painting! You did an awesome job with building depth, exactly the way you described. The effect is very dramatic and brings life to the piece. It has movement and solidity at the same time... I love that! I don't think I'm getting your new posts in my blog roll... I can't figure out why.
ReplyDeleteWorking in layers of pours is a bit like layering color in colored pencil. I did pencil drawings years ago, in fact my husband occasionally mentions he wishes I still did. Exploring this way of painting is great fun for me and it appears to show in the results. Thanks for your kind words.
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