From one of the smallest watercolour paintings I ever did (doodle study-posted today) to one the largest.... this painting is twice the size of a usual large painting that I do! The image is an artistic interpretation of the inside of a cell, not a jail cell, but a living biological cell. The planet-like thing at the top represents the nucleus. The objects all have their own personality. In the original design there was a stark horizon line, but to create the illusion of endless space I covered it up with clouds and objects. There was also a cartoon-like character with a fishing rod in the foreground that did not go with the overall tone so I covered that up too. Gee, an artist is never supposed to reveal their secrets eh!?
I used several interesting techniques in this painting.. the little white dots over the planet-nucleus were created by throwing some salt on the moist wash. The bubble shapes (vacuoles) were created by dropping paint with a plastic pasteur pipette (borrowed from the lab). I also used the pasteur pipette to drop water onto my palette, this helped to create large volumes of paint needed for the big scale. The design was completely original, no prior doodles were used, I just had a general sense of the composition. It was challenging technically and mentally, you really feel the pressure to paint something great on a large scale.
30x44" hot press. April-May 2013
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