Crack... Cracking... Cracking Open

Crack… Cracking… Cracking Open

After a loooong period of absence where I was out in digital space building and launching my online art shop, I finally have created some art again!

I wanted to make a triptych. I had this idea in my head about a progressing crack which cracks open. It is symbolizing my process of opening up and showing more of myself through my art.

The paintings didn’t come easy though. I was struggling how to create the images I had in my head. I knew I wanted to make the cracks very palpable, with a lot of 3D texture. But those techniques are new to me.

I started off with a layer of collage, just as I have done in some of my previous paintings. Then I painted marks (dots, lines etc.) on top of the collage and many thin, translucent layers of acrylic paint in various shades of red to create a rich color and depth.

For the 3D layer I used light molding paste: a thick, fluffy acrylic paste that I applied with my palette knife in thick layers to get a deep 3D texture. Fortunately these days it is summer and really hot outside, because I’m always very impatient and the molding paste needs enough time to dry… 😉

Then I painted the parts surrounding the cracks green. Yup: green. Various shades of green, like my painting Seeing Rubies that I like a lot. But this time it didn’t work at all…

When that happens I always have to struggle through a difficult phase. I have an idea, I think I know how to create it, but when I try it it doesn’t work at all. Often at that moment I am tempted to give up, think that my idea was stupid in the first place and that I never should make art anyway. My inner critic is always having a blast at that time.
But I am learning that at that point I have to carry on and try to find a different approach, letting go of some parts of the idea to make room for new ways. Trusting the process.

So this time my new approach was to continue with the crack idea, but use blue instead of green for the surrounding parts. And I must say I’m really happy with that change, this color gives the depth and mystery I didn’t even realize I was looking for.

I also remembered that I had some crackle paste somewhere in my stash. Just like the molding paste I hadn’t used this paste before either, but what better time to use crackle paste than to use it for a work that I knew I would call Crack… Cracking… Cracking Open. So I applied the crackle paste over parts of the molding paste, had to wait again very impatiently, and yes the cracks appeared! Magic! Then I added different shades of blue in various layers and my paintings were born…

Below you see the three paintings individually.