Churn

Modeling paste and acrylic on wood box | 2" x 3.5" x 2.25" | One of a kind

Choppy water doesn't move in one direction. It moves in all of them at once, each wave interrupting the last, the surface never resolving into pattern. This is what churning means: not chaos exactly, but competing forces, none of them winning.

The surface is built up in modeling paste and layered with thin washes of acrylic in various blues, applied in freely moving strokes that follow the logic of water rather than the logic of composition. The colors shift from deep to pale depending on the light. The texture holds the memory of how it was made.

Inspired by Poseidon, and by the particular quality of open water when the weather is changing.

The box is functional, with a hinged lid and interior space. It is also a painting. Both things are true at the same time.