Finally

It only took a week to paint most of these threads on the 'weaving', and somehow, it has taken two months to actually finish the painting, seal it, and get it delivered. After considering my goal with the 'fabric' part of the painting, I decided to take the advice of one of my closest friends and make it look as old as possible, like it was some kind of artifact. After finishing all the weaving, the tangled fringe at the bottom, and the highlights and shadows of each thread, and also repairing a noticeable dent in the panel (long story, don't ask), I coated a dark glaze layer over the whole thing, threads and all. Here are the results:

This piece measures 24 x 40, and is titled 'String Theory'.

After hassling over a number of sealant choices, I picked out two Golden products. I read that if you want to seal several coats on your painting, and you are striving for a matte or satin effect, you should paint the underneath coats glossy and finish with the outermost coating in your satin or matte product. The glossy layers are sharper and show more detail through them while retaining the richness of the colors. Satin layers diffuse the detail and dull the colors. So if you repeated the matte layers over and over, it would compound the negative effect. I liken it to how non-glare glass affects a framed work. It makes sense.

Now I'm on to the next work. It's funny how much I can bounce around from project to project. I started out on this last piece, then got severely sidetracked with remodeling plans in our kitchen, then closet, and now master bathroom. I can get so focused on one thing for awhile that the rest of my projects come to a complete standstill... at least for awhile. None of those other house project are finished... in fact they are barely started, but for awhile at least, I'm back to painting.

I got a renewed desire to a paint, as I just made a trip to visit a good friend and gallery owner back in Oklahoma. She took the 'String Theory' piece and will show it when she can. I'm not sure how it fits into her gallery schedule, as there are a string (no pun intended) of one-person shows lined up through the rest of this year and most of next year. But just being in the back room archives is a step in the right direction. And visiting her gallery always motivates me.

So my next panel is now built, sanded, primed, gessoed with two different layers, awaiting a third or fourth white layer, and then after one final sanding, it will be ready to start painting. More later...