New Abstract Painting: Midnight

"Midnight", 9x9" mixed media on paper. Available.

Here it is: the last of the little pieces I had started before my dad died. I use the term "started" loosely… they were all in different states of completion, but for the most part they had a background laid in and some form of drawing started. Based on something. Can't always remember what. This one I hadn't really even chosen a color scheme, but since the background was yellow, and my purple experiment had turned out quite well, I decided to continue on with that theme.

The purple I have in my arsenal is a very transparent violet. I really like the color, but it is the only purple I have, as most of my work in the last few years leans toward the warm tones. To give myself some variation I added a blue and a couple different metallics… the iridescent Mother of Pearl I used in "Twilight", and the mother of all reflective paints, Tri-Art's Liquid Mirror. This paint is so reflective that I used it for all my highlight areas. All the white looking areas are silver, and in some areas I used my transparent violet over it for a lovely contrasting effect. Along with the iridescent, I may have possibly overdone it a bit… I haven't decided yet. I definitely can't show the effect with a scanned image. It's just one of those things I guess. In keeping with my learning-the-new-stuff post of last week, I'm going to try embedding my Instagram post of the video. The painting was only half done, but you can get the idea. Hopefully it will work….

Liquid mirror and mother of pearl interference paint.... ooooooo. .shiny.... #art #creativity #acrylic #paintingart #paintingoftheday #abstractart #contemporary #wip #torontoartist #instaart #abstractpainting #shiny #silver #metallic #nightsky #purple #lovepurple #bling #hellyeah

A video posted by Marianne Morris (@morris4of4) on Oct 14, 2015 at 4:05pm PDT

I have a couple other metallics in my box of paints that I haven't used in a long time…. I wonder if they're still usable? As much as I love the Tri-art colors, I can't say I'm enamored with their packaging… the heavy body acrylics have a tendency to dry out in a relatively short timespan, whereas my Goldens are still good even though it's been months since I've used them. I sometimes need pliers to get the lids off, but what's inside is still a nice consistency. Nothing more frustrating than having your heart set on a particular hue, but having a dry, clumpy mess you have to dig out of the tube.

I can't imagine I'm going to have much time to work in the coming weeks… my car unceremoniously crapped out on me last week, and given it's age and milage we have decided to decommission the old girl and find another way to get around. The bus has proven a bit impractical. Work, which is an 11 minute car trip, is an hour and two transit systems away, and while I could get there in a half hour on my bike, the direct route would involve taking my life in my hands on a twice daily basis. According to google, I could walk in an hour and a half…. but winter is coming, and I live in Canada. I have a good coat and boots, but I have no intention of walking 3 hours a day in sub-zero temperatures. So, now I'm looking for a decent used car. Wish me luck.