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My Liquid Paint Journey
by L.A. Pagán, January 4, 2021
What is Pour Painting?
Pour painting is a process where three-six colors of liquid acrylic paint are poured onto a canvas, wood or any flat surface. Painters use tools like cups, strainers, and filters to work with the paints. Many different chemical reactions can occur on the surface as a result of the color’s density, medium, and painter technique. As it dries, the paint continues to change over a 24-48 hour period, which can present welcomed surprises or disasters. Usually, the end result is an abstract pour painting with amorphous lines, organic shapes, and color blending.
1st Abstract Experience
It all started with my first abstract painting course at FIT in 1997. Our homework was to create thumbnails with watercolor or gouache on paper. We used those studies as a basis to create larger paintings. I enjoyed creating the thumbnails in watercolor more than the larger paintings, and felt they were more successful. There was something about seeing the process of two or more colors, in liquid form, joining together creating rivers and islands of color while simultaneously creating another color. It’s like witnessing a chemical reaction. At times I feel more like a scientist than an artist. Fascinated by these experiences, I have continued to explore other paints, mediums, techniques over the years, and pushed myself to discover new rivers and islands and to create more complex visual designs.
The Painting Continues
After graduating from FIT in 1997, my academic career continued as a Painting major at Purchase College in 2003, as a second semester Sophomore. In my Junior and Senior years, I was excited to take courses that allowed me to hone my painting skills, and to also explore and grow the painting process I had started at FIT. While earning my BFA, I created formulas with oils, acrylics, and latex paints.
I found mixing paint created different colors - a tedious, mundane, stressful, and time consuming process. So I decided to find an affordable brand where I could purchase all the colors I wanted. I also experimented with different mediums to extend the paint and reduce them to liquid form, and used them to paint on many different supports like canvas, vellum, MDF board, wood panels, and others.
For my Senior project, I created amorphous paintings by pouring paint onto Vellum. After drying, I cut the shapes out and placed them onto the floor and pasted them onto ceilings and walls. They looked like little pools of paint frozen in time or portals to different dimensions. I was encouraged to continue after receiving a top mark on my project.
I have a BFA and I’m not afraid to use it!
I continued painting these smaller portals after graduating from Purchase in 2005, and soon began to create four-foot painting portals. At this point in my early career, I connected with other artists and activists in the South Bronx art scene. We developed shows together whenever we could to put our work on display. Within one year out of college, a friend curated my first solo show of my works.
I decided to drop the time-consuming practice of cutting vellum and started painting on large wood boards. I hoped in the future to return working with vellum for special projects.
My own studio!?
I’ve created mainly from home, and that practice continued after graduation until I found myself not creating anymore because being home is just too comfortable. To help myself stay motivated and consistent, I rented a few studios over the years to help me focus and continue exploring my painting process. Inspired by Jackson Pollock, I went to Home Depot and purchased two of the largest wood boards they sold, 4 x 6 feet! Working with these two paintings, I definitely tested the boundaries of balancing the pours and the time it took to create them.
Pour painting is a process that happens in real time. There are very few acceptable mistakes that you can make and every move has to be calculated and precise. Practice is the only way to gain mastery of this process. It took me five hours to paint each large board.
When the muse hits, I have painted five mini-paintings, two small paintings or one large painting in one eight-hour studio visit.
The Explosion of 2015
In 2015, I noticed that pour painters began popping up on Instagram, showing their work and process. It was fascinating to see because for over 10 years, I thought I was the only one pouring paint. Social media helped bring us all together. I started to follow other pour painters to connect, be inspired, learn new techniques, and see other tools used during their processes. There are 1000s of pour painters creating paintings all over the world. I think however that I’m the only professional Latinx artist creating pour paintings in NYC.
Personal Residency
As I write this statement, the world is experiencing the pandemic of 2020.
It is December 10, 2020.
When the pandemic started in March, the world went into a panic and we went into survival mode by staying home, and only going out for essentials. On the TV, we saw people dying or being killed because of injustice and possible acts of God. On social media we saw 100s of family and friends dying because of the virus or other illnesses. We saw riots, looting, and experienced a month long firework show in our neighborhood that lasted until 3am sometimes. And for the first time, we experienced a curfew in NYC. In August, for the first time in months, the city felt like it was calming down. It was time to get back into the studio and exercise all the new ideas I prepared in the past few months from reading blogs about pour painting and learning the history of how pour painting had begun.
All my paints were old. I had to purchase new ones. I began researching and discovered many companies developed paints just for pour painters! I’m in heaven - I no longer have to purchase paints and mediums separately because these companies pre-mixed them. I began to use a line of pour paints called Primal Flow Paints, a family owned company that started in 2016.
Who’s the fastest painter in the East and how much do you charge?
Since there are now many pour painters sharing similar styles, it can look like the many available paintings are painted by the same artist. Only a trained eye will see the nuances in each painting. How can you tell the difference between a bedroom painter and a professional artist? There are two main ways: materials and price. Determining a pro based on materials, however, is tough. Not many artists share what materials they use on the internet. It’s something we haven’t really considered nor been taught to do. Only a true art connoisseur would know the difference between entry level, student grade materials, and professional materials.
If you see an artist selling a 10 inch painting for $10, they don’t take their artistry seriously. $10 barely covers the cost of materials and it’s not a livable wage. They’re hobbyists who are watering down the world of pour painting.
Professional painters sell at higher prices because:
- they invested time to master their craft
- they use professional materials
- the prices reflect a livable wage
Here’s a quick tutorial:
- If an artist tells you they use painting mediums and wood boards by Blick, those are entry level materials.
- If an artist tells you they use painting mediums by Golden and canvas by Fredrix, these are professional level materials (these companies now have student grade products available, so be careful and don’t be afraid to ask the artist.)
Pour painting is one of the fastest ways to create a painting. It’s a process that lends itself to the artist who doesn’t have a lot of patience and wants to create as much work as possible during this lifetime. Especially an artist, like myself, who is juggling relationships with family members that live in different states; a large cohort of close friends for 20 years; full-time jobs in different sectors; a fabulous wife and cat; personal health issues. I am 48 years old. I want to create as many paintings I can and be involved in creativity until I can’t anymore.
Over the years I have received negative comments from people, like “my child can do that!” and I take no offense because it’s true. Anyone can pour paint just like anyone can create drip paintings...now. Jackson Pollock’s Action Paintings weren’t taken seriously at first, but after he made a documentary video - the world saw his process, his control of the paint and his mastery. We saw the beautiful complexities of working with non-traditional materials, his approach to canvas, and sometimes the lack of care which led to his majestic paintings. That video and the support of Peggy Guggenheim pushed his career forward.
Yes, pour painting is painting fast. However, what many people don’t see on Instagram is how much time we spend:
- mixing paints
- measuring how much medium is needed
- checking the paint for the right consistency
- choosing the right colors
- choosing the size of the wood panel or canvas
- making sure there is enough paint
- choosing the proper tools
- choosing a technique (approximately eight exist)
- ensuring the room is at the right temperature
- and for those who record their process: proper lighting and timing is important.
There are many variables to consider in pour painting. Regardless whether pour painters and our processes are taken seriously in the art world or not, we have carved a place for ourselves in it. Be careful in purchasing pour paintings online - when you find a painting you like, ask the artist what materials they used. My preparation, enthusiasm for the form, and years of experience are all part of my finished works.
