Dennis Hollingsworth

Late Last Nite

OK. Relax, I'm not going to call this one: "Satan's Anus". Cool name, tho.

At this crest of the swing towards the maximalist, I feel a tug for the antithesis... a light touch. One one hand, on the other hand...

So, for this day before I travel to LA to rejoin Stephanie and her family, I'm going to build out a few panels that I've been thinking about for some time.

I've noticed the difference between the works on paper and this current group of unusual bleached antique linen panels. Namely, the former is smooth and the latter is rough. The roughness prompts thick, stubby wads of paint, whereas the lack of tooth in the paper prompts more nuance per flick of the wrist. On a smooth surface, the repertoire of paint applications is wider, an image is an interleafed compilation of many kinds of marks/daubs. A rougher surface requires fistfulls of paint pounded one atop the other. The exception is a multilayered trowel of a smooth surface, filling in the weave... but even with this, brushstrokes cannot flick easily across the surface. There's something about the proximity of the substrate that provides the spring for a flicking brush. A loaded brush drags differently on a thick bed of paint.

So, I'm going to build a few panels that will be stretched with canvas that will be gessoed over a layer that smooths and fills the weave of cotton duck with modelling paste. A slick surface, in other words. I'm going to build the panels differently, too: I'll lay the 1x2's on their sides for a thinner cross section. Flatter, thinner, slicker...closer to paper than the panels of old.

Here's a series of close ups of the recent painting:

Another lunar lander approach.

Closer.

Closer.

The Eagle has landed.