Sun, Earth, Moon

I did this painting years ago, perhaps 1999 when I was living in the basement of a shared student house in London Ontario. The theme of the painting is 'flying and floating', most of the elements are things found in the sky. In the background there is an Egyptian god of the sky in the purple tablet at the top. The creature with the sun-head is kind of a mix between a bird and an octopus, with a skeletal neck. The belly of the creature opens up and shows the earth and the moon on a background of stars. I like the different layers in this painting, the sky and the starry night and the sun all give this sensation of visual uncertainty. To paint the stars I took the hard road. Using a very dark shade (mixture of crimson red, deep blue, and sap green) I paint the night sky, leaving blank paper for the stars. At the end I put light washes of green and red on the starts to make them shimmer. The easy way is to use rubber masking fluid (see cosmetic makeup), then you just paint the sky on top and use an eraser to reveal the stars. The way I did it here, you have to control the brush extremely well to maintain the small star shapes. It is good practice to do this at least once! 

Sun, Earth, Moon, watercolour 15 x 22" cold press, 1999 (No. 1934)