#6 Pink Moon

Again like the last painting, this began life as a different painting.  I really enjoyed doing this one and the colours seem to sit together harmoniously.  You can see the "old" painting underneath in the areas that I have scraped the paint away with a pallete knife.  I have found one of the biggest challenges in abstract art is deciding when to stop; when the painting is finished.  It's like a game and it's such a buzz when you get it right.  I was listening to a lot of Nick Drake whilst painting this so  the title seemed like an obvious choice to me.

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#5 Electric Forest

A wide variety of colours were used in this one.  This began life as a different painting, but when the paint dried I wasn't happy with the end result so I painted over it and I think it added so much to the final painting with the different textures already underneath.  I took part in an exhibition that summer with some of my abstract art and, although I was very nervous as I was showing a new style of art for me to the general public for the first time, it went down very well and for many this was the stand out piece for a lot of people and from the feedback I recieved.  I suppose it filled me with a lot of confidence and it was a sign that maybe I was moving in the right direction.

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#4 Unafraid

The colours I used here were Black, White, Metallic Blue, and I think the other colour was a type of metallic Brown.  I love using metallic colours alongside the more traditional acrylic colours.  Especially when the painting has dried and I apply a gloss varnish, it really brings out the colours and creates a lovely "shine".  My bottle of white paint was nearly empty but I found it created a lovely "powdery" effect when the last of the paint was squeezed through. It's always good to discover new techniques and ideas.  It was another action painting, quick and intense!  I'm not sure why I made the "v" sign at the end, it just happened as part of the process but I was happy with how it looked in the finished painting.  Some people have said it looks like the aerial view of a rugged mountain! It's always interesting to hear what people interpret from a painting.  Regarding naming a painting, I think its nice to give a painting a title rather than just "Number One" etc and usually whatever music I am listening to at the time will have an influence on the title I choose for my finished painting.

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#3 Your Heart is Telling You

Whilst experimenting with acrylic paints previously, I had problems with paintings turning to "mud" ie too many different colours of paint being applied and mixed together and eventually turning to a horrible brown colour. So in my early paintings I decided to limit my pallete and the colours used here were Black, White, Viridian and Cadmium Red.  I thought the Red and Viridian might compliment each other nicely.  I loved the texture of this piece and the large amounts of paint used.  A friend described it as looking a bit "violent" and I supposed it's a nice description!  You could also call it an "action" painting, the process was as important as the finished work.  I also used a pallete knife in certain areas to scrape off layers of paint, revealing areas of the surface.

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#2 Underwater Passion

For this painting I used Black, White and Metallic Blue acrylics.  I again used a large spatula, and the black and white paints were applied from bottles.  I just played around with the spatula, enjoying the process and seeing where it took me.  Towards the end I seen a shadowy black fish like creature emerge, so applied an "eye" with a drop from my bottle of white paint!  I quite like the streaks of white paint in this one, and the way the white paint drips down on the right side.

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#1 Fresh Flowers

This was my first attempt at an abstract style painting. I suppose it's kind of half way between realistic and abstract, in the middle ground. I watched a video from youtube and got inspiration to try this. I didn't use any brushes, just a spatula, black and white acrylic paints and diluted black and white paints which I squirted from a bottle.  I felt a rush of freedom and enjoyment when painting this, and it was nice to have a finished painting after a couple of hours rather than slaving away laboriously over a pencil drawing.

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