800 Under the Sea (at the Shedd Aquarium)

I always have many paintings in progress, so that if I get stuck on one painting, I have something else to work on.  I find this prevents me from having any excuses for procrastination or frustration.  This painting began long ago as an "ink pour," which is exactly that----random pouring, dripping, squirting, tilting--- black ink onto water color paper.  I wish I had taken a photo of the initial image, but shown below is another in its beginning stage.  In the case of the seascape above, the jellyfish tentacles, the anemones, the long skinny striped fish, and the sea plants were all ink drips, and finally it made sense to me after a very long time of staring at it that it was a sea scape.

The hardest part for me is interpreting this and making it "something," sort of like a Rorschach test, which by the way, I was fascinated by as a child.   I made my own ink blots and tried to psychoanalyze my nieces and nephews by their responses.  That was really fun.  Sorry, I got off track.

Here is what the ink pour above turned into.

Sorry for the poor photo, but it is difficult to photograph glass.  The fun part about this painting is that it could have been turned in any direction.  The buyer liked it best in this orientation, and it looks beautiful in her home.

"800 Under the Sea (at the Shedd Aquarium)"
mixed media- 13x22 in

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/800-under-the-sea-at-the-shedd-aquarium-/480334

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