Pour art development - mixing, colour and consistency

I find the colours I use in the paintings I make to have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the piece. Because colour is so important to me within my practice, I tend to spend up to an hour or two simply mixing the right colours for the paint pours, before any painting takes place. I find that using colour straight from the tube can sometimes dampen the quality of the paintings and can result in your work looking too ‘samey’ and generic. I find that mixing my own paints allows me to create my own artistic aesthetic that is personal to my style and reflects the narrative I’m trying to portray; something that will aid in my creation of 'Gehenna'.

Alongside the importance of creating a colour palette that is pleasing to the eye is the consistency of the paint mixture. If the mixture is too watery or too thick, the paint simply won’t have the correct body to spread organically across the surface of the canvas in a way that allows you to manipulate the direction of the pour. It is essential that the mixture is ‘just right’ to achieve a successful pour that isn’t ‘muddy’, ‘merky’ or ‘clumpy’ in appearance. Once the colour and consistency of the paint is of a standard that allows the pouring to work successfully, I then apply the paint to the prepared backgrounds. 

More often than not, once I have poured the pre mixed paint onto all the prepared canvases, I am left with a selection of cups half filled with left over paint from the previous pours. With the dregs from each of the different cups, I pour them all into the same cup to create a multi layered cross section of paint that’s ready to pour. Often, these pours end up being my favourite, as the colours featured in the paintings are so varied. Alongside this, the pressure with these pours are virtually non existent because you’re simply using up paints that you don’t want to go to waste. The pressure to pour the paint in a compositionally attractive form is eradicated and you can simply play with the leftovers.