Baywatch Babe, discussed in the previous Babe in Paradise blog post, was the first imaginary creature I painted based on one of my earlier ink drawings. Although I consider this figure to be abstract, it is easily recognizable as a female creature on a beach. However, many of my later imaginary creature paintings are a bit more abstract. For example, how should this painting be hung? This way?
Or this way?
And what kind of creature is it? With this abstract painting, the viewer can decide. Whatever you see in the painting is what it is to you.
What's most interesting to me about this painting is that it is the first of my 'macro-micro' paintings. The macro portions of the painting are the large patterns that make up the overall shape of the creature and the background that you can clearly see from a distance. The micro portions are the painted patterns within each separate circle that make up the 'dots' on top of the macro patterns. Below are some examples of these micro paintings within the 'dots'. Notice that there are also dots on the patterns in these micro paintings. If I could paint small enough, I could paint patterns within these dots as well. Theoretically, these micro paintings within the ever smaller 'dots' of the previous micro paintings could go on forever.
I did another version of this painting with a totally different color scheme and added a new micro technique.
Within some of these 'dots', I have done the same type of micro painting of patterns as in the previous painting. You can see examples of these micro patterns within the large circles below.
However in many of the other 'dots', instead of micro patterns, there are circles upon circles of lighter shades of the same color creating depth. Examples of this new micro technique can be seen in the 'dots' below.
Another of my favorite imaginary creatures is RALF. Most people agree on which direction this painting should go, but there's a wide variety of opinions as to what type of creature RALF is. Again what you see is what it is to you.
RALF is another 'macro-micro' painting that uses the same variety of micro painting techniques as the previous painting. The 'dots' on the RALF creature are each filled with micro painted patterns, while the 'dots' in the background contain circles within circles of lighter shades of the same color.
I liked RALF so much that I created a world for it in another painting RALF's World, in which I also used creatures from some of my other paintings.
RALF is shown moving along a path enjoying an outing in this world.
If you look closely, you can see wildflowers represented by the red, blue and green dots in the background.
In addition to RALF, the first two creatures discussed in this posting are included in the sky. Their placement should give you a good idea of which direction I think these paintings should be hung, and what kind of creatures I think they are (as do their names Winter Flight and Summer Flight).
Some of the creatures from Sunday on Turtle Pond discussed in my Hidden Treasures posting are also included in the water.
The rock formations were inspired by our trip to the Cappadocia region of Turkey. Those of you who have been there will recognize their shapes but not their colors. RALF's world is of course more colorful!
The patterns from the rock formations bordering the water are reflected in the water to create mirror images. Painting these mirror images of the patterns was much more difficult than I expected and gave me plenty of headaches!
In the next posting, I will talk about more of my imaginary creatures.