Sixth Seal

There are a few areas in the piece where some air bubbles formed when I adhered the paper to the wood panel. There is also a small crease on the left side that you can see if you zoom into the first picture here. These bubbles are most visible when a bright light is shown on the piece, although they're not visible in the images here. I think most people wouldn't notice them, but if you have OCD tendencies, you may want to skip this one. The price has been discounted due to the bubbles. This piece has heavy texture in places. This texture comes from building up heavy layers of paint, which provides a rich history for the piece, not all of which is always visible. The piece is finished with a coat of Liquitex satin varnish and a cold wax rub, both of which help protect the painting over time. The painting has a satin/matte finish. This piece is mounted on wood panel. It comes wired for hanging. A certificate of authenticity is adhered to the back of the piece using archival-quality adhesive.

This intuitive piece feels related to a couple of my earlier pieces... the rock reminds me a little of my “Ship Rock” piece and the overall scene feels very much like a larger view of the scene in “Parts Unknown”. It’s another moody green seascape direct from the depths of my subconscious, painted with my favorite combo of vermillion and phthalo green. This started as something VERY different from this that I began a few weeks ago, but I had set it to the side because it was so boring. So I painted over it. There’s a huge sense of freedom when you walk away from a piece that isn’t working; all of that previously constricted energy is suddenly made available again and I can paint with freedom! I added many, many layers to this piece. At one point there was an olive green layer over a golden layer. I used steel wool to scratch back parts of the olive green to reveal the golden layer as energy in the distance. The rock pretty much added itself. When I say that I make myself into a channel and let the muse paint through me, I’m being serious. These intuitive paintings paint themselves. I mixed up some phthalo green and white to make the swirling clouds of mist and the water below. I was careful to add some mist in front of the rock to give the impression of greater depth in the scene. And I used steel wool on the sea to give that gorgeous water effect; I’ve been milking that technique since I accidentally discovered it last October. What I had then was nice... but it was just an empty stage. The rock is a focal point, but it really needed another actor on that stage. I could sense that the piece wanted dramatic red streaks dropping from the sky into the sea, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to represent that yet, so I was being careful. To hedge my bet, I smothered the entire piece with a layer of soft gel gloss to act as an isolation layer. This often makes it easier to wipe off any new paint after that, if you’re quick and get it off before it sets at all. I then practiced several different treatments for the red streaks. I knew that I wanted them to have different widths, opacities, and colors, so I used a combination of 3 techniques: (1) I used painters tape to mask off the ones that are closer and less diffused, (2) I used a q-tip to softly paint in the ones in the distance as more diffused, and (3) I used a red Posca acrylic marker to make one of them since it’s so easy to use. Using all three of these techniques gives those streaks the level of variety I was looking for. I then cut the piece down to mount it on an 18"x18" wood panel. I then adhered the paper to the panel with gloss medium, using the technique that I describe here.