I've been repainting a series I called "pattern paintings" because they were basically bland backgrounds with detailed patterns of color on the surface. I decided they were too static and "decorative," so I've been trying to make them more interesting.
Here's what today's attempt looked like before I began to work on it:
I began to paint over the middle horizontal section of the canvas, using a medium sized brush. I used colors that had been toned down and mixed with glaze medium and water: a dark red, purple, lavender, and violet blue. I painted in up-and-down strokes, quite loosely.
At that point, I thought it would be better to let more of the underpainting show through, so I took a rag and began to wipe off some of the paint I'd just added. I also blended the other colors, leaving ghosts and splashes here and there.
All this was an experiment, and I continued in that manner by drawing random scribbled lines in cadmiumn yellow light, focusing on the top and bottom of the canvas. Then I drew similar lines in Prussian blue, focusing on the center horizontal swath of the painting.
Here's how it ended up:
