I was originally going to call this piece ‘Spidery Dangle Tentacle Type Thing’ but thought that was quite inappropriate. Instead it began to emerge that what I had created gave me a chilling reminder of the cult movie by John Carpenter called ‘The Thing’ – in particular the bit where all the aliens tentacles spew out of the guy’s chest. How pleasant. In fairness I wasn’t pre-occupied with this when I painted it.
You can probably pick out the individual layers that this piece is constructed from. The painting would not work without the strong rainbow of coloured stripes that form the basis of the background. Without these sharp tones there would be no platform to show of the complex drip strokes over the top. Colour is vital when composing a piece like this. It’s very easy to lose areas of the painting if the combination of colours is wrong. I have also played with lots of different consistencies of paints on this piece which has helped me get some really cool effects.
There’s lots to look at in this painting – the three main black applications are the most readily identifiable. There are more though, as you take a closer look – including solid daubs of blue powdered pigment, gold leaf and aluminium oxide paint. Long expressive movements in white dart regimentally across the width of the canvas whilst charging angry blacks and oranges dominate the verticals with fierce authority.
This particular piece measures 1524mm x 1220mm x 38mm and was painted onto 12oz triple primed Belgian canvas and stretched over a kiln-dried hardwood frame. It was painted in ten shades of oil based enamel paint, silver aluminium oxide paint, blue base pigment and a selection of thinning mediums. The canvas was painted on the floor.
Alien Love Child is ready to hang.
