Aglow
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Something about this piece just makes me happy every time I look at it, the 13 glowing circles reminding me of stars, or fireflies, or even lamps through a dark mist. The dark blue-black background perfectly offsets the magical snowflake-like rosettes that formed when I tried my salt trick on this softer, more porous paper.
The other interesting difference with this paper was that the water droplets formed little wells that actually sunk into the paper, making dimples on the back.
When I painted in the background afterward, the paint was drawn straight into the circle by the salt crystals whenever the brush touched the edge of one of the little branches.
This is a really good close-up of a pair of the crystalline structure, so you can see all the detail that gets softened into a simple warm glow when you back up and see it from a distance.
I put it into a wide black frame, which sets off the warmth of the paper and the not-quite-black of the paint really nicely.
Aglow, 7″x5″ mixed media on paper, $699, framed, with free shipping.
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Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art, Series and Books
Tags: fireflies, for sale, salt, sky, stars, watercolor