Painting of the Week – Working Force

Working Force was created right after taking an Abstract Acrylic class from Carol Barnes, an artist I admire very much. I absolute struggled in her class and was embarrassed to paint so poorly in front of my peers. Despite my humility, she shocked me when she claimed loudly that I would do really well with Acrylic. We were looking at a particularly messy piece of mine. I continued to work with abstracted shapes relating to them as best I could, and gained a lot from her painting knowledge. Today I love painting with Acrylics as much as Watercolor and learn more by using 2 different mediums.

After Carol’s workshop, I painted “Working Force” using a curved grid and a limited palette in watercolor. Please look how the gridded shapes in the lower left corner were scrubbed through and connected  and layered  into the horses. It was exciting to see this painting unfold! I remember saying to myself “There’s Carol Barnes”. Then I did some lifts into the horses again extending grid like shapes.  Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nude Descending a Staircase”, a favorite, popped into my head giving me steam.

See how the curved grid adds to the motion in Working Force. The curves have flowing diagonals which activate the composition. Also, not everything is in focus. Moving objects blur and the amount of  blur can define the speed of motion.

“Working Force” is available as a giclee in two sizes and you might want to check out. “Working Action” too if you like it.

Do your have New Year goals to reach to greater heights with your painting? I would love to share my love, joy and experience painting with you in one of my workshops and  I’m still working on scheduling a summer beginning Watercolor workshop. Click on the links below to sign up or  learn more.

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