Scratched - Work In Progress

Scratched (Work In Progress): mixed media on canvas, 12" x 12"

This is an abstract I'm working on at the moment. As like many of my works, this is something spawned in serendipity after painting over the same canvas, which was also an abstract, but was not to my liking. I want this piece to look very metallic, as though someone has scratched into a piece of steel, perhaps a security door, in such agony as they realise that they could not escape, that in their last ounce of strength they left an ominous reminder of their existance for us to bare witness to. This is the sort of imagery that reminds me of fires, where people have been unable to vacate their homes by either doors or windows, though more so of the former.

I need to buy some silver paint, along with some other metallic hues like copper and gold, of course. So just one week after purchasing some much needed supplies (as in paint) for home and school - and thinking I wouldn't return for atleast a minimum of six months - because I've experimented with another artwork, I now recognise the need for these supplies. I do have metallic oil pastels in silver, which I'd thought would work as an inexpensive alternative, but alas it's off to Eckersley's, as the pastels barely show any metallic quality as I'd hoped.

How awesome is impasto? Though I've used it in art class at school, this is the second work that I've used impasto on at home. In the past, I used to think that I could achieve the same effects with paint, slapping it on courageously. But it all shrank, dried only to be discovered as slightly raised, not having the same 3D quality as it did wet and as I'd envisioned. I realise you'd have to apply layer upon layer of thickening paint, so in my own mind impasto is far easier to handle. I now adore impasto.