This painting started as something completely different. I started with the usual 7 layers of medium, then incised a grid and dropped a different color of alcohol ink into each square. The result was similar to the button piece, visually. I really liked the way it looked but then added some ink to it, and when I wiped away the excess I ruined the effect. I had pressed the letters "raspberry beret" into the piece because of the color and the somewhat musical structure of the design. So I let the ruined painting sit for several days and came back to it today. I decided to paint over the grid with a white version of a pussy hat, playing on the idea of the raspberry beret. I added several layers of color, using oil sticks and mixing red, white and clear wax, then incised the grid over the hat and filled it with red oil stick. Finally I pressed the letters in again and filled them with orange. This time I did not add a final layer of wax medium; I wanted it to stay gritty.

I really like the color play and how the image floats above the grid. Thanks for visiting!

Today's painting is from a photograph I took at Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn last year. I enhanced the image using several apps I keep on the iPad until it looked as distressed as this location feels. The materials today included oilstick, wax medium, and alcohol inks. As always I prepared the ground with several layers of wax medium, this time over the raw board. I incised the horizon line and the pilings and roughed up the foreground to create the texture that is so dominant in that landscape. Old bottles, shards of pottery, rocks, ground up pilings - all make up the beach at DHB. The color is an exaggerated rust because of the abundance of rusty things found at the location.

This would have been a perfect candidate for using coffee grounds - next time. Thanks for visiting!