When I first started working with alcohol inks I tried to control them.

I had a picture in my mind of what the painting was going to be. Certain colours in certain positions, a specific outcome I was working toward. And I applied the ink and it went somewhere else entirely.

Not wrong. Somewhere else. Somewhere I had not planned for and could not have predicted. And the painting was better than what I had planned.

How alcohol ink actually works

Alcohol ink is suspended in isopropyl alcohol. When it hits a non-porous surface the alcohol begins to evaporate and as it does the pigment moves. The artist makes decisions but the ink is always making its own decisions alongside those. For a full explanation of the medium and what it produces, read my post on what alcohol ink art is and why it feels different to live with.

When I try to force it, the painting feels forced. There is a tightness in the work. When I let it go, the painting breathes. Something happens that I could not have planned and would not have known to want.

What this taught me about control more broadly

I am a scientist by training. I spent years in environments where control was the goal. Alcohol ink is the opposite of that. The noise is the point. The unpredictability is where the life is.

For the story of how I arrived at making art from a corporate background, read my post on why I make art.

What this means in the paintings

Every painting in my collection contains something I did not plan for. CROSSCURRENT got its name because the blue and the teal met at an angle I had not anticipated. MIST became MIST when the turquoise went soft and hazy in a way that looked exactly like early morning fog over water.

The paintings that carry the most feeling are always the ones where something happened that surprised me. The people who live with these paintings tell me consistently that they keep finding something in them they did not see before. That is the ink still moving, still revealing itself. This is also why these paintings never get boring.

You can read the real stories of what happens when these paintings arrive in people's homes in my post on the paintings that found their homes.

If you would like to bring that quality into your home, my collection is here. I cannot wait to see you there.