Ka-Boom (sound of a failed experiment)

I am trying to remind myself, as Edison expressed,

that experimentation is always a success.

Even when the outcome falls short of the desired,

we simply celebrate finding one more way

NOT to do something!

Buoyed by delight in my "quilting with paint" trial (The Angel Tree) I got a little bolder and amped up the restrictions.  This time I wanted all my "fabric" to be cut in differing sizes of rectangles with one notable exception.  Again, the idea was to study the colors (mostly the contrasts) to see how I could manipulate the overall affect with very little detail.

Don't worry: I do not expect you to like this piece.  Just try to understand the intent.  The photo I based this on was relatively simple: sky, mountains, a barn and background, middle ground and foreground.  Easy enough.

Far and Away, detail

The photo above shows the gist of the "assignment." The mountains are the only curving pieces sewn with the paint.  

note chalk marks

How easy it is to get confused with so much going on!  At this stage I was trying hard to stick to the program I laid out but feeling a draw towards "pointillism".  So I made some chalk marks on the piece to keep me in line.  (And, truthfully, at this stage I did consider trashing the plan.)

Far and Away, final, 24 x 24, acrylic

hmmm,...not really how I had imagined it all coming together.  At this point I realized it could be an endless project of correction, more hours, more paint and it was not ever going to get much more attractive.  So I propped it up across the room to contemplate while I ate lunch.  

The lessons I learned are not really visible but had a lot to do with shape and contrast -  two of the basics I was "teaching" my young students recently.  I also learned how to dive into a piece that I intrinsically held no value other than educational (something the students taught me).  So I cleaned the brushes, took another gander at it all and decided to celebrate:

"Yippee!  I demonstrated yet one more 

way of how NOT to paint a piece based on contrast."  

view from a distance is better

Undaunted, undeterred.  Inspired, invigorated.  Ready to begin again.  KA-BOOM!  the sound you hear is just another experiment gone astray.  Only 9,998 more to go.

Exploding in Color,

Cindy