Pinwheel color paintings

If you follow me on instagram you might have seen sneak peeks of some of these pinwheel color pieces.

Shortly after moving into our house (August 2011) I bought a huge canvas with the intention of making some large artwork to hang on the walls. I went through my pinwheel mania phase and made a few canvas pinwheel paintings to sell in my etsy shop. After one of them sold I was a little sad to see it go, but then realized I could make one for myself on that large canvas that had just been sitting there for over a year.

I liked it (the top image) so much that when I found a bunch of little canvases I already had in my studio, I decided to keep going. When I shared one on instagram it got a decent enough response that I thought I should make some to offer for sale at the Na-Da Farm Sale and in my shop.

When making these pieces I find it hard to know when to stop. For the huge canvas I created a “sketch” on the computer so that I would know what colors should go where. Even though I was happy with the sketch, when I made the real thing I kept noticing issues of certain colors that i didn’t like next to each other. I’d add a strip in here and a strip in there, and then that causes more issues and if I don’t stop myself the strips will all become so narrow that looking at it will be like looking at an optical illusion and will make a person dizzy. Even now I see areas that could use another color, but I have to call it finished (for the time being). Now, we’ll need to figure out where to hang it.

I made this one last week after Anne Marie of NaDa Farm posted theme colors for the sale will be pink, turquoise, green and gold.

I’d also really like to loosen up on these. One of the things I loved most about the idea of these pinwheels was that some of the colors would be more textured. That’s why I’ve added the chalkboard paint one of gold paint, but I would also really like to do some where it’s just messy and not a solid color, or even straight lines. I have a hard time just letting go.

Unrelated, if you’ve made it this far down, I’m just about to wrap up my last installment of the 100 Things About Me series. I’m sure I’m missing things that should be shared. I posted a thing on my facebook page asking for suggestions of things you might like to know about me. If you can think of something you think I should share, leave a comment over there.