"Sidewalk Magnolia Leaves" is acrylic on canvas, 36x36." This piece, like many of my recent works, is a pouring-and-mask painting. I guess it's just really where I want to be with my work right now. When I go for walks in my neighorhood, I pass under several giant magnolia trees. In the early summer, I started seeing these giant velvety leaves on the sidewalks in the most amazing range of golds and browns. I picked up a few one day and brought them home to use as color inspiration. I created a highly-textured pour using golds, greens, and browns, and sprayed alcohol to disrupt the surface. I chose a midnight blue for the mask to further push the warmth of the gold. 

I did something I've never done before with this painting. The dark gray-blue I used for my mask is by nature transparent (Payne's Gray), so I added some white to give it opacity. Transparent paints tend to be glossy which can create a glare and reveal brushstrokes, especially with dark colors. When I painted my mask in my studio, it was very flat and uniform. When I placed the painting on my mantel under spot lights, all the brushwork leapt out at me, and not in a good way! You could see how I'd painted around the shapes, not a good effect. This morning, while it was still dark out outside, I set the painting up on my easel with one strong spotlight to create a glare. I stood where I could see the brushwork in the dark mask, and I painted... with glare, basically. It was very interesting and not something I've ever done.