Artists, who are by definition explorers, need to have access to a wide range of techniques. They want to experiment, try, learn, compare and choose what suits them best to fulfil their artistic goals. The more techniques they are exposed to, more experience they can gather, the better are decision they can take. Not always an artist has the chance to choose the technique he wants.

There is a tight connection between materials and technique an artist uses, and the quality of marcs he leaves on canvas, paper or other supports. The expression of his marks depends on how deeply he understands this intimate relations, and what he can do to make the best of them. Any slight modification in the specifics of his materials, tools, colors is reflected on the surface of his work and artist responds to them, strengthening, weakening, erasing or ignoring. All the time he is involved in multiple decision. Some techniques, to be practiced safely, pre require some conditions to be met. In the case of painting, some materials used are toxic and understanding this aspect imposes precautions in using them. Such a judgement brought me to use acrylics, instead of oils which was highly recommended as the best painting medium available.  I need more experience to understand what is the optimized expression for each material and tool I have. It is a journey, I very much enjoy.

Tube or Fluid Acrylics?

Using fluid acrylics

Using fluid acrylics

In 2008 I transitioned from painting with watercolor on paper, to paint on small canvases which do not need to be protected by a sheet of glass, light weight, easy transportable allowing me to use vivid colors.

I was told that oil tube colors are considered superior to all and should be my choice. Another option would be to use acrylics, new to me, not yet on the market when I was young. By reading, I learned that, not having a studio, oil would be more toxic for my small living space. So, I decided on acrylics and tried to find a less toxic, environmentally friendly brand.  For economic reasons, I decided to use fluid acrylics, used for spraying, and applying them with a brush, avoiding the use of tube acrylic, advertised to be used heavily.  By using fluid acrylics I was able to put down marks of great precision, not exactly what I was looking for, but sufficient to attract my attention to their potential and make me thinking how to make the best use of them.  Some people are puzzled by the strong color response coming from a thin coat of brushed acrylics on my canvases. I still use them this way. This compromise do not bother me, as far as I can get by brushing the color response I want.  It works for me.

 I  still need more experience to understand what is the optimized expression of each material and tool I use. I am on a journey, I very much enjoy. 

Lines, Design and Brush Strokes

Flagellum

Flagellum

Looking at my paintings of 2010 (Tangents, Flagellum, Tripath) and 2011 (Triumvirate, Tenderness, Tunneling, Fragments) I observed a repeated spontaneous tendency, to express content using lines of different weights, thin, thick, straight, curved, long and short, charged with energy and speed. It reminded me of technical design, drafting techniques. Line abundance in my paintings, has enriched my painting vocabulary and I found its root, way back in my high school years, when I studied at a Technical High School for Civil and Industrial Construction, learning drafting technique, and thought about myself to become an architect.

It is interesting to see how forgotten experiences of seven decades ago can resurface and enrich the present expression of creativity.

In 2015 Gridscape and Hive illustrated this tendency to express myself away from painterly representation, closer to design like drafting. Later in 2018, another three paintings Echo, A Place to Hide and Shiver gave another illustration of the power of lines in an enriched context.

In painting Yin and Yang (2010) inspired by notions of Chinese culture, I could recognize the influence of power strokes of Chinese brush writing, learned during my university study in China. Analyzing each painting, brought back history, stories of the past, enriching the present understanding of life’s complexity, a mesh of multiple connections and influences.