Day 9 of the 30 Day Challenge

Perception III by April M Rimpo

Day 9 brings the third panel of the quadriptych, Perception. One of the things I love about watercolor and fluid acrylic is the drips. When used to enhance a painting they can bring a whole new depth to the painting. I have used drips in several of my landscapes and in some portraits with great success.  The portrait, Woman with a Wrapped Hat, has received awards in national and local exhibitions.  Here are examples:

• Freight Yard
• Arriving at Kensington
• Woman with a Wrapped Hat

Using the drips in these abstracts has been more to create texture in the painting.  I think they help move the eye around the piece. Although Perception III has drips that run primarily in one direction, there are smaller drips that run in random directions since I didn't want the abstracts to be too linear.  However, I ended up adding colors to this underpainting that reinforced the linear direction of the drips which I didn't really want.  I went back and introduces swirls which significantly reduce the directionality of the painting which feels more harmonious to the concept of these paintings.  

To see all of my 30 Day Challenge paintings click here
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"Rock Arch", 8" X 8" fluid acrylic by April M Rimpo

Rock Arch by April M Rimpo

Having lived in Arizona for many years I love the red rocks of the southwest United States.  There is something about the natural arches that are especially appealing to me.  Perhaps I am drawn to these because they are formed by wind or water, depending on their location, and the thought that nature has such power to change our surrounds.

Many of these are located in southern Utah, northern Arizona, and south western Colorado. Often being hot dry environment they are generally in sparsely populated regions, so not only do you have these amazing rock formations, but there are wonder dark skies for view the sky. I took liberties and made twilight a bit brighter so I could include and illusion of starry skies in this painting.  There is even a hint of the glow of aurora borealis, which in reality don't generally occur this far from the north and south poles, but artists are meant to take liberties.

Rock Arch

Fluid Acrylic on Varnished, Gallery Wrapped* Paper

8" X 8" X 1.5" deep

$160 when shipped within the United States**

* No framing required with gallery wrapped paintings

** Contact April if outside the United States to discuss shipping costs

Day 8 of the 30 Day Challenge

Perception II by April M. Rimpo

Those of you who have been following me during the 30 day challenge are probably trying to determine what part of the body you are looking at.  I was hoping to keep the pose of the figure ambiguous at this point in the series so you could just enjoy the abstract characteristics of these paintings for a while. I particularly liked the quality of the background of this segment.  The left half felt a bit like a starry night so I added some colors that might be part of an aurora borealis and swirls that could be galaxies. 

My husband enjoys astronomy so I get to see a lot of pictures of celestial objects: galaxies, nebula, black holes, star clusters.  It surprises me how the filter astronomers use on their images to emphasize different aspects of a celestial object cause different parts of the sky to appear as different colors.  As I worked on this painting my goal was to use color to simulate this same effect. 

To see all of my 30 Day Challenge paintings click here
#jan30in30