cinquantadue

nonobjective painting digital painting Abstract Art abstract gesture layers Abstract Expressionism

cinquantadue 52, digital painting, 2021.

Could I make paintings without paint?

Until 2020 I thought the answer was no. I used pixel-pushing applications to make vector compositions and photographs, but no digital tool seemed to generate visual ideas like those I developed with oil paint.

cinquantadue 1–6, digital paintings, 2021.

I paint a picture with a limited range of oil colors and count on “happy accidents” that occur while making marks to expand the picture’s range of hues and values. I also start with thin layers and build up to heavy impasto brushstrokes, interweaving notes and opacities to create a complex surface. That not-quite-in-control process never happened fluidly with pixels.

Then I used Adobe Fresco to complete Inktober, making one “ink and wash” drawing for each day of October 2020. The results were promising, so I designed a similar challenge for 2021: make one “oil painting” a week.

cinquantadue 7–12, digital paintings, 2021.

These fifty-two works are the cinquantadue experiment. Each one also utilizes a limited range of colors applied in multiple layers of interwoven notes and opacities.

cinquantadue 13–18, digital paintings, 2021.

17 April, digital painting, 2021.

Like oil paint, Adobe Fresco has some eccentricities: close inspection reveals a regular “sawtooth” pattern simulating impasto, and a fun bug in the “watercolor” bleed effect sometimes spews magenta. But the app delivers most of the visual ideas I improvise on canvas with no need to watch paint dry. And an appealing bonus: no brushes to wash.