The Experiment

This series of four paintings was an experiment. Not a very scientific one but I did try to control variables and make predictions. My hypothesis was that since all pigments are different in their molecule size, shape, and hydrophilic and hydrophobic qualities, they would all move differently through the medium of water, and as they interacted with each other, and that their movement would be fractal. In other words, I expected them to appear, at the end, as if they were something like a cloud, or some other natural item that is already known to be able to be modelled using fractal geometry. A coastline, for instance.

All four pieces were executed and controlled in the same way (I won’t give away all my secrets!), the only differences being the pigments I used and the order they were used in. I tried to reduce the effects of gravity by levelling my table but it is kind of obvious there was a tiny bit of gravitational effect. I changed the orientation of the final products so that when they were hung together, it would be aesthetically pleasing. Other than that, the results you see here are basically the raw data.

I called them Negative Nebulae, because I looked at all the white space around them and imagined if it was black, and the colours were reversed, they would look a bit like those photos you see from NASA of distant nebulae. In other words, these would be like the negatives of those photos.

Here they are – what do you think?: