Flag.

The painting Flag is in many ways a crossover painting. It is the bridge from one group of straight painterly paintings to my more recent constructions. It utilizes the poured gesso technique of Push, but because of the rectangular shape the technique didn’t seem to have the same impact as it did in the square format. The square seemed so comfortably focused, whereas the rectangle seemed less self-contained.

I have been collecting various materials and objects that I find interesting. One such item was a roll of packing material made of cardboard that had thousands of uniform cuts of about two inches long in it. The cardboard was very soft and had an almost woven quality to it. I soaked the cardboard in gesso and attached it to the plywood support. The result looked heavy and unbalanced and I felt I had to add something to balance the composition. I had two small panels I had started then discarded, and I nailed them to the other side of the plywood to complete the composition.

I decided to keep the painting fairly simple by placing an under coating of yellow acrylic over which I applied a top coat of ultramarine blue. I scraped away some of the blue so the under painting would show through on the raised areas of poured gesso. The cardboard I painted with an under coat of acrylic black and over that I placed layers of cadmium red oil paint.

The title suggested itself fairly obviously as I worked. I like the dual nature of the title, it could represent a national flag, or it could also be an object flagged for attention. While not necessarily a successful painting I still view it as an important step in the development of my work.