Kaleidoscope

20” x 24”; Acrylic on canvas; 2018

“Kaleidoscope” was truly a labor of love. There is a misconception that fluid art is “easy” - that you simply pour the paint mixture in a cup and dump it over the canvas and lo and behold you’ve created a masterpiece! To the contrary; I had to fail over and over before creating a fluid painting I was satisfied with. It took weeks (months?) to figure out the correct ratios of paint, water, and Floetrol; how to tape the edges “just so” to keep the paint from flowing off the sides; which silicone products - and the amounts - would create the cells I was aiming for; how much flame to expose the paint to at the end to reveal layers of color. I made epic messes, spent hours pouring and re-pouring, and started enough small fires for my husband to establish a “no torches in the house” rule (which I have broken many times since then, but don’t tell him that!). I had the inspiration for this piece while looking through my daughter’s kaleidoscope at my garden. The sky and the flowers all swirled together to create a cacophony of color. The beauty of fluid art for me is that while I can dictate which colors I use, their ratios, and roughly where I want the colors on the canvas, there is a level of uncontrollability once I pour the paint onto the canvas and the painting begins to evolve on its own. This painting ended up being the perfect combination of the intentional and the unintentional.