#274 and #275 Square Abstracts 8 and 9 to complete the Grid, 1/18/20

The completed Grid (still needs 9 frames, yikes)

Tonight I worked on the last two abstracts to complete the grid of 9 that I had planned.  These came together with a little more pleasure than I experienced with the middle event (numbers 2-7).  I think if I do more of these, I will be more experimental in the textures of the colors and the shapes of the black lines.  Number 9 I added additional black lines as I went and was happy with the outcome.  Also, number 8 I decided to make the tiniest space have the bright red....read that somewhere, it's an old-master's trick to keep all the colors bland, but allow just a few tiny bold colors and that makes them special.

I must say that I'm disappointed with the cerulean blue paint I've had.  Have I already complained about this?  Let me complain again.  When I bought my first round of oil paints for the class I took in the fall of 2018, cerulean blue was on the list of what to bring.  I was at Michael's, they were having a big sale (when aren't they having a big sale?) it was buy 2 tubes of paint get the 3rd free.  The class list had 8 colors listed, so of course I got 9, duh!  But the cerulean blue was 3 times more expensive than all the other colors, what the heck!?  So being the frugal person that I am, I found a cerulean blue "hue" that was a "water mixable oil colour" and it was the same price as the other regular oil paints I was buying, problem solved.  Whenever I would use this particular paint it seemed to behave "weird".  It didn't cover territory the same way as the other paints, and it seemed to have a different texture.  So, a few months ago I spent the money and bought regular oil cerulean blue (no hue in the name, and not water mixable).  But it's the same deal - it doesn't cover, so you load more paint on the brush and then it just kind of looks like you put a thin layer of concrete down.  It does blend with the other blues, so that's how I've been using it.  But on number 9, you can see the pretty pale turquoisey blue corner - that is the cerulean blue by itself (with the white canvas coming through).

Square Abstract #8

Square Abstract #9