Getty Show Triggers New Materials

This essentially black and white painting is oil on a wood panel.  The colors used were more than just black and white, and the material more than just oil paint.

The 'black' section of the painting is composed of lamp black, ivory black, and paynes gray (cool, blueish), and burnt sienna and vandyke brown (warm).  I wanted a rich varied black that had some warmth.  Most "blacks" tend to have a cool bias.

The 'white' is composed of titanium white, zinc white, titanium buff, paynes gray (for cool tones), and lemon yellow, raw sienna and yellow ochre (for warm tones).  I usually strive to achieve both warm and cool tones in my art.  I like the resulting palate interplay.

The last room in the show "Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1970", at the Getty focuses on the unique materials artists of that period used in their work.  It got me thinking about what materials I could add to my oil paintings.   

Mixed in and on top of the paint are thousands of iridescent, prismatic and metallic copolymer plastics, and aluminum foils.  This makes the painting sparkle and glisten in the light.  I used mostly white particles on the white paint and black particles on the black paint. The photos below do not really convey these paintings.  Like most work, there is no replacement for seeing it in person and in this case it is even more true.

Western Shore, 2011, 38 x 24 inches

 
Detail of Western Shore