Abstract Painting

In 2022, I had a studio space near downtown Los Angeles and put it to good use. It had a wooden floor with old paint stains from previous creative tenants. It felt free and open to make a mess, and I did just that.

I enjoyed pouring paint or doing a “dutch pour” technique and it served as some great therapy. It was a good mixture of having a method, but being free and letting go. Anyone can sling paint around a canvas, but after a while I found I was developing a “style.” Also, some science eventually came into the picture helping form a unique look to my pieces.

I had watched many YouTube videos showing artists stretching their acrylic paint with various pouring mediums. I came across one who used dish soap and I was highly intrigued. I began to play and mix my paints with various liquids like dish soap, baby oil, rubbing alcohol. I found that each gave the paint a different viscosity and made it spread in a unique way. But… and I’ll pause first and say…

I’m not the kind of magician that holds back the trick. I love art and feel everyone should create and there’s plenty artists can share with each other, so…

The largest breakthrough was with vinegar. Plain old white vinegar breaks down water based acrylic paint in a wild way. It speckles and spreads it into small dots and daubs. Fascinating. Once I discovered this, I had even more fun. I took a moment one day to do some more science work and poured each of my mixing liquids (soap, oil, alcohol, vinegar) into a glass to see which was more dense than the other. That allowed me the ability to layer colors on top of each other. It lead to some of my favorite pieces, like the one that is featured at the start of this page.

As of now (2025), I don’t currently have a studio space to paint in, but I hope to again someday. Like other creative work, friends asked the age old question of “how much?” I’ll take that as a good sign…