Day 8 Painting 4: St Paul's wall filth

To see the inspiration for this piece, read yesterday's post.

"Wall filth" is a strange term, but it's an exciting hashtag on Instagram that inspires me often.

In a nutshell, it's accidental art on public walls.  It captures my imagination because it's not only "unplanned", but it also tells the history of that environment or wall in an organic way.

It's a cool concept, but achieving an effective random composition in a restricted area [like a canvas] is harder than it looks.

I knew from the start that my biggest challenge would be restraint. If I'm enjoying a colour or a particular technique, I find it hard to stop. This genre of painting works best when the artist has edited him or her self, to keep the image vibrant and energetic.

My method of editing is not an unhealthy one however. I enjoy the flow, fill the canvas, then use a covering technique to create a focus and composition.

I'm sure my need for covering will decrease the more I practise and paint intuitively. 

(My St Paul's doodle went very wobbly unfortunately and was left with no time to improve it. Look at me being all pragmatic and sharing a less than perfect work!)   

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"History of St Paul's Cathedral" Acrylic on canvas 12x16

I used my squeezable paint pen for the first time. I achieved a good drip, but to be honest, I found it a bit cumbersome.  That may have been the particular brand of pen I used (Grog), however, so I may try another brand e.g. Molotow. 

I'm going to continue this theme and series of techniques for the next few paintings.

Check back tomorrow to see my inspiration.