Zen State | Acrylic on Canvas

Wouldn't it be fun to pour paint onto a canvas and let the drips fall as they may? If so, welcome my new painting, Zen State.

First, because free falling paint will create puddles, I covered the floor with plastic sheeting. Next I placed a 60" x 60" canvas - so large, my 5' 1" height could barely manage the behemoth - onto the easel. A ladder came next (wouldn't it be wonderful to paint in a huge studio with pulleys). Now for the paint. I mixed blue acrylic paint with water, tar gel and soft gel, gloss, mediums. This created a thicker texture which would slow the paint's decent.

Now for the really fun part! I climbed onto the ladder and poured the paint across the canvas' top, watching with glee as it slid down. I progressively poured batches of blues and grey onto the canvas (wet on wet) with some batches thinner than others. Once the paint dried I poured purple paint -- oops, that didn't look so good -- so I wiped the purple off, creating a purple haze effect which looked pretty cool (once again proving mistakes can be a good thing)! How much fun was that??

Drying time again. I somehow managed to flip the canvas 180 degrees and, once again poured paint from the top. Now for the tricky part. While the paint was slowly flowing, I laid the easel flat to stop the paint's descent. Once dry, I added splatters, drips and lines in other colors.

Try this method -- it's really freeing to pour paint onto a canvas -- cleaning up -- not so much!!

Zen State is acrylic on canvas - 60"x60"