December 19, 2006

Game Theme

....
'Your Turn' and 'Tic-Tac-Toe' - 24x24 each

Yesterday we took to the road with paintings for the Memphis gallery as I needed to get my entries delivered for the January 'Games' theme show. I'm sure many of the artists will come up with much more game oriented paintings than I did but I used it as an excuse to continue with my own grid/bokusho theme. The "Tic-Tac-Toe" painting is too obvious for my taste, but I rather like the trial and error result of "Your Turn"... and believe me, it was one wipe-out after another from beginning to end. Often this type of frustration, if I really stick with it, will give wonderful surfaces and innuendos I could have not manufactured intentionally.

5 comments:

Jacie Wiggs said...

Very interesting surfaces Karen, the red in the one on the left almost has the appearance of a sketchy line drawing.

Anonymous said...

I love "Your Turn." The comment by Jacie about the red having the appearance of a sketchy line drawing makes me ask, what was the process of creating this piece.

Iris

Karen Jacobs said...

Jacie and Iris, the red is what's left in the texture after most has been wiped out. If the paint is dry, I use rubbing alcohol or alcohol based hand cleaner to selectively dissolve the top acrylic layer. The 'look' will depend on the texture of earlier layers. KJ

Martha Marshall said...

Very nice, rich surface on that first one especially! I like its complexity too.

Rebecca Crowell said...

Karen,
I really like Your Turn, the surface looks gorgeous (even better in person I bet!)and there is an interesting depth effect created...as your eyes move between the looser, more gestural marks and the more solid blocks and grid lines. They are integrated through the subtle surface textures, yet contrasted in such an interesting way, organic and geometric. I've only just started looking at your work and realize this probably is something developed in other paintings too.

I also didn't know you could dissolve layers of acrylics--I do that with oils/oil solvents all the time but had thought it was something unique to oils. Interesting!

I am eager to look at more of your work--
Rebecca