Statement

It seems to me that I have often tried to get away from using the saturated red-green-blue color scheme. Some how I've always gravitated towards this, even if I start out with a very muted or monochromatic pallet. Oh, I've pulled off a few, Like a winter scene of a hedge row, or a muther of a monster; but more often I start out thinking that I will keep the chroma down only to drift into this saturated mode of rendering my image. A few years ago I used a method of first penciling in the drawing on water color paper then inking it in and using an acrylic wash. That was a good method of retarding my chromatic saturation level; I've used this technique on canvas as well but when I start to paint over the drawing I tend towards more and more saturated chroma levels...
...To compete with that electric glow of the television I give in to the saturated color scheme and give the luminosity a boost. I do this - as best I can by first laying down a opaque coat of pearlescent paint on the white gesso surface ( pearlescent gives off a glow when light hits its, like a car license plate. ) then build it up with Three or four layers of increasingly transparent pearlescent paint until I end up with a thick layer of clear medium. Over that I lay down the first, transparent set of colors; usually laying down the opaque colors as I finish. Of course I don't adhere to this method religiously, Of late I have been drawing a good portion of the image in pastel chalks then painting a clear coat over that; then I finish it off, using that method of clear to opaque. This process can also be referred to as thick to thin when using oil paint, I use acrylic medium... ...Content, for me, is usually taken from my surroundings. I sketch something either on a surface or commit it to memory. Then take this preliminary image and simplify it, edit it, tune it, and usually end up with my completed image. Sometimes the - "simplify it, edit it, tune it"- is done before I lay down the first bit of paint; Other times I make It up as I go along. Usually the preplanned image turns out representational and the stream of consciousness image is abstract. There are times where the two processes synergize; which is I look for representation in the abstractions and simplify the representational, that's usually the fun part. Tedious parts of my process are always at he end and most always involve putting in detail that I feel I must put in.

Ian Mitchell