I was playing around with ink, bleach and acrylic in the studio this afternoon, trying to produce a piece of work which resembled the sea in an abstract sort of way. I started by soaking the A1 board and then dropping inks and bleach onto it, before manipulating the shapes by tilting the board and blowing the paint into various directions. I decided which of the shapes I found interesting and painted out the negative space around them. It started to resemble a map, but then it made me think of land masses breaking up, the Arctic melt, and perhaps what you might see if you were under the water looking up at the ice and glaciers. Parts of the painting which felt as if you were either looking down or up through water, towards pockets of light, and this reminded me of a film I watched when I was about 16 called “The Abyss”, hence the title. I have enjoyed making the piece, but I don’t know whether it works visually. I like the fact that the unpredictable effects of the ink has led me to make decisions about which areas I want to keep, and which I want to conceal.
Angela spoke of the flip side to making spontaneous pieces, which is the lack of planning, but perhaps I have stumbled upon a technique which allows me to do both. I might experiment with this technique further, but his time have some reference materials ie. photos to refer to rather than just playing with ink.
Antidotal Recall 