Collaborative Paintings

This morning I received a canvas which had a background painted on it in preparation for a collaboration between myself and fellow Rogue Gene Collective artist, Amanda Hunt. There's something quite exciting about doing a collaborative piece, since you never know what to expect either way - whether you are painting the background or the foreground. In some cases, as with the latest one uploaded to the Rogue Gene Gallery (Mildred Pearce) the collaboration was between 3 artists!  I painted a textured background using some 3D acrylic paints and a mixture of interference medium in shimmering red with the 3d paint in crimson. This created a sort of terracotta shade overall - although apparently the colours will shine through as different hues depending on the direction of light. I also added touches of gold acrylic to the various raised areas of the 3D paint.

So, this is the original background that I sent to Kos Marton:

Having struggled to come up with a suitable foreground (the ideas don't always appear immediately with collaborations), Kos did a seascape but wasn't entirely happy with it. Therefore, Rob Kirbyson added a third layer and it became the painting "Mildred Pearce" - which is a 3-way collaboration and I think a very successful one. It wouldn't have existed without everyone's input, and even though you can now only really see the textured marks from the original background painting, it's obviously a collaboration.

Now that I have received a background from Amanda, I am just as excited at creating something that I would not normally do. The possibilities with collaborations are much greater, I think, than with painting or creating alone.

Here is the background I sent Amanda previously, which she is going to create the foreground for:

This morning, I received this background from Amanda:

The artist who completes the foreground decides on the name of the painting, which is fairly logical really since it cannot be named in advance unless all collaborators know exactly what they are going to be painting. I suppose that would be another way of collaborating, but it's not the way we are currently working and I think I prefer it this way!

I will post the completed paintings when they are both finished - I think Amanda and I are racing to see who does it first, but if my track record is anything to go by, she will win!

You can see Amanda's work on Rogue Gene Gallery here or by visiting her personal website at http://www.amandahuntgallery.com/

Rob's work can be seen on Rogue Gene Gallery here or on his personal website at http://www.acrylicsandoils.com

Kosana's other works are on the Rogue Gene Gallery here.