I present two small acrylic landscapes, the result of a fun practice that involves creating shapes by intervening on a random layer of paint, as you can see in this video, organized into steps: first the preparation and choice of colors, then the random application of color on the cards, then viewing the result card by card, and finally the conscious painting on two of the resulting colored cards.
When I say “chance,” of course, I don’t mean the artist’s total absence, but rather the degree of intervention we choose to have on the work we create.
It’s clear that even when we paint abstractly, or when we throw paint onto the canvas, what emerges is always the artist’s intention, even if it’s involuntary. I can throw paint, but the gesture is mine; however, the color can escape me, expand more than expected, create shapes I hadn’t imagined.
Here, however, I want to try a different experience: I want to place the paint on the sheets of paper completely randomly, without seeing it, and therefore completely without my knowledge. The colors will be mixed without my direct control, and the final result will serve as a starting point for observing how this can be possible if we deem it necessary to invent something from a random pictorial expression.
The result we’ll achieve in the two paintings I’ll make, based on the suggestion of random shapes, stems from this very process.
Acrylic on Cardboard, 14,8 x 10,5 cm
Alberto Repetti Artist 