In Progress: Light the Floor

"Light the Floor"

20"H by 16"W, on canvas. 

(click for enlargement)

This is my first serious acrylic painting since a little experimentation in school. I decided to begin by mixing black and white gesso to work out the initial values in the underpainting. So far, I really do like the medium but I do have a little problem with judging the drying time with the colors.

When I shot the photo I'm using as my reference for this painting, I was in an abandoned house in Mississippi. Painting the window with the same energetic pale spring greens that saturate that landscape seems the most likely. Interestingly, this was the first property where I had physical problems with getting around from room to room, and not because of the amount of refuse. The floor, while holding together amazingly well in most places, had some precarious soft spots where water had been dripping for decades.