MICHAEL ARNOLD ART

 

"Life One"

2008 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 40 inches

“Life One” is an original, signed acrylic painting on canvas by artist Michael Arnold. I don’t pretend to know or understand how life formed around us; whether through spontaneous generation, omne vivum ex ovo (everything living from an egg) or intelligent design. My painting, in fact, could be interpreted as all three; I’ll leave that to the viewer to decide. Instead, I’ll talk about how I created “Life One.” First I picked a focal point and began drawing random diagonals through the focal point. Once I had covered the canvas in diagonals, I alternately painted the spaces formed by the diagonals in watered down magenta and green. I chose those two colors because I felt they would recede and make the yellows, oranges and reds pop more once they were painted over them. Then using a white colored pencil I freehand sketched the approximation of the Fibonacci Spiral beginning at the focal point. I then began drawing amorphous shapes following the outline of the spiral. Once the drawing was complete I began painting in two shades of yellows, two shades of oranges and a shade of red. I chose their placement by feel with no real plan of where each color would end up. I built up a half dozen layers of paint through glazes before mixing thicker layers of paint to create the shadows and highlights for the shapes. The painting makes a bold statement on any wall where it is displayed. "Life One" is also available as the front of note cards and the prints can be purchased here. This artwork was created using acrylic paint on a high quality wrapped canvas. Acrylic paint works very well on stretched canvas. When purchasing artwork many people aren't sure what the difference is between acrylic and oil paintings. The main difference between acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over underpaintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques, but in other regards it impedes the artist trying to work quickly. The fast evaporation of water from the acrylic paint film can be slowed with the use of acrylic retarders. Retarders are generally glycol or glycerin-based additives. Oil paints tend to require the addition of a toxic solvent, such as mineral spirits or turpentine to thin the paints and clean up tools, though relatively recently water soluble oil paints have been developed for artist use. Secondly, oil paint films become increasing yellow and brittle, and will lose their flexibility in a few decades. Acrylics can be used on many surfaces without a medium- layer. They allow sharp brush-strokes but also a more delicate shading, although it is more difficult to create a smooth change between different shades. They are usually very bright. Although the permanency of acrylics is sometimes debated by conservators, they appear more stable than oil paints.   Purchase Price $750