Never Be The Same Again
Hi everyone,
I’m very excited to reveal my biggest and best painting ever. This is a piece that I have been working on for over 4 years. Finishing it is a huge deal for me.
Lets get into it.
Never Be The Same Again, 2019. 116″x36″ oil paint, acrylic media, silver and gold leaf
Specifics
This painting consists of three three foot square canvases. There is a space between each painting, making the total length almost 10 feet.
The surface is thick oil paint. There are a lot of cool effects with the heavy brush strokes. I was going for a Van Gogh type of texture.
Another influence for this piece was Piet Mondrian. He had a strict set of rules for his abstract paintings. I tried to adopt that attitude. One of my rules was ‘no straight lines’.
The other artist that influenced this painting is Lois Clarke, my grandmother. She painted me a sun with planets, and I used a lot of the same colors and shapes. That painting has been on my wall my whole life, and is a huge influence.
I made the orbs using acryllic pastes and gells. They are about a half inch elevated. I cant say how this will turn out long term. They could fall off the canvas, who knows?
For the orb parts, I wanted them to be ellevated and spherical. I used acryllic pastes for the main bulk. On top of that was acrylic and FW Oil pigment sticks. Over that I put Golden acryllic gells, mixed with glass bead gells. The top layer is a little gold and silver leaf.
Look closely….
Maybe I went a little crazy. Some of these media say not to mix with oil paint, so there could be long term problems. This is an experimental painting. As far as I know, that combo of surface treatments hasn’t been tried before.
Living on the edge here.
Meaning
As an abstract painting, the meaning is open to interpretation. It expresses itself visually, and can’t be translated into words. But I’ll give my personal feelings about the piece.
Life is long. As our circumstances change, we adapt and become new versons of ourselves. Continual personal change is a constant process. This painting is about the continual reinvention of the self throughout life.
It could be interpreted as planets and suns. But I see it more as the point where sould meets body. Or the Atman, if you rather. Its meant to express things we can’t see.
I painted this over the past 4 years. It was the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning. We moved houses together more than three times. In a way, multiple versions of myself worked on it. This piece is a collaboration between my current self and the previous versions of myself. For me it is very personal.
It is called Never Be The Same Again. It’s making a proclamation about life. I believe it has a positive message.
Watch it take up wall space and dominate smaller paintings. Thats my boy.
Completion
Now it’s finally safe in its home. It has been a long journey to get here. This picture will always hold my memories of this period of my life. The good and the bad.
I’m glad to finish off this part of my life. And I can get on to other commissions. If anyone is interested in a painting, I am available for hire.
More work is coming. Stay tuned and as always, thank you for reading.
-Sam C Laughlin, SCLecccentric
SCL