Lost Painting: Potato 2

I was in between painting techniques, searching for something new.

So I started painting with a potato.  I thought it would be a good thing to put in between my clumsy hand and the canvas, distancing but natural, with a built-in pattern -- the unique lumps of each potato -- to lend a subtle consistency.

I would impale the potato on a brush handle, cover it with a thick coat of paint, and start painting.  I had to replace the potato within a day or so, because it would get soft and start fermenting, giving off a vinegary odor.

Applying the paint was tricky: because the potato had some weight, it would push paint into ridges at the edges of contact, leaving the squirmy ribbons in the photo.

Great art is never easy, and neither is this mildly entertaining potato art.

Anyway, the actual painting had a quilt-like warmth to it, the suggestion of vines or veins (or genetic ribbons) starting to form a structure at the center, and some mild frenzy.  It measured 48 by 48 inches.

Lost Painting: Early Harvest

Here is one of my favorite paintings -- in spite of its Halloween color -- that did not survive.  It was too dark, and had to be optimally lit in a dark room to look as sharp as the image here.

I made the painting with a tedious and difficult process, where layer after layer of thin paint was poured over a slightly textured surface.  I loved some of the results, but like a lot of work based on a tricky process, there wasn't much room for growth, and I had to move on to a process with more promise.

The painting was done in 1994, and was 48 by 48 inches.

Lost Painting: Bars

I never could approach painting head on, and had to find unusual techniques to get the job done.  In the early '90s, I made three paintings with the technique used here -- using a potato instead of a brush -- before I gave up.

I've always liked the photo below -- the way the bars float above the surface as they fade off to the right.  It was shot from the side to bounce away the flash that the old Polaroid camera I used needed to see anything.

Lost Painting: Blistered + Inverse

On the left is a (60 by 48 inch) painting from the late '90s.  I liked its blistered look, but it was a little too sloppy in real life, and there was no way to clean it up.  I eventually painted over it.

On the right is its digital inverse.

Lost Painting: Vines

This is a painting from 1997.  It was 48 by 48 inches.  It would never be all it should be -- the blue was a little too intense and synthetic, it had smeared spots, and there was no way to fix it -- so I sent it to the glue factory.

Too bad -- I really like the brightness and the vines.