Going back to 'Social animals' series

I’d just done some “double overlay” paintings, in fact four of them (see last post) and decided to go back to November when I made the original “social animals” series. The reason for this move was that I didn’t have any new Japanese “kotowaza” to use but needed a break. The ‘Social animals’ paintings are easy to do and this time I’d be making sets deliberately, originally I made up the sets in the end with extra ‘Party animal’ paintings having made a bunch of the other ones. You’ll see (if it’s not clear what I’m talking about right now).

I had always wanted to make ‘Social animal’ paintings in red and blue, and now added yellow as well for variety. Perhaps in future I’ll just do red and blue alone or maybe red, white and blue. That’s the thing about painting it’s not just WHAT you draw of paint, it’s also the colours you use, or else the overall tone.

I chose brightness this time because red, blue and yellow is a happy combination. For the collage I used some old paramontage rejects photos that were still usable in this way but that I otherwise had no use for. I have a bunch of paramontages upstairs not being used that people can’t even see because the living room is on a different floor, but I haven’t made up my mind to cut them up yet. Maybe some of the less successful ones I’ll cannibalise in this way I haven’t made up my mind yet.

The photo paper these paramontages are printed on is very thick relative to ordinary magazine paper so it takes a while to get the collage to stick but I spend a good deal of effort making sure it does. Following the red-blue-yellow ‘Social animals’ set I’ve also started a maroon/purple set so will post those later on the blog. The reason I chose the maroon/purple colour scheme is that a friend recommended this for a “kotowaza” series and I got some positive feedback on the colours then.