“Large Fluid-Dynamics Painting”

(70” x 140”) 2015

ARTISTIC GOAL How do you get a viewer physically engaged, an active participant?  One way is with visual movement across a large expanse of canvas.  The eye will follow directional brushwork and dwell upon smaller areas of detail.  Large swaths of negative space (where there are no brushstrokes) will enhance this flowing, overall effect. 

This entailed challenging Dulcinea to make a painting taller and wider than she was originally created for, and even larger than what he could paint in fourths by shifting the canvas, as had been done in previous paintings.  

ROBOTIC WORKCELL ENHANCEMENTS 

Vertical Rollers and Scrolling To extend its vertical working range, Paul added canvas rollers at the top and bottom of the robotic wall, like a tapestry hanging from a scroll.   

Horizontal Sliding Carriage To increase it horizontal working range or width, at the top of the wall he attached the tapestry roller to a horizontally sliding left/right carriage.  With left and right registration hard stops on the sliding carriage, the canvas could now conveniently be slide to the far left and right portions of a painting. 

Rotated Axis To create an extremely wide canvas, the canvas was mathematically rotated 90 degrees, using the rolled tapestry as the x-axis and the horizontally sliding carriage as the y-axis. 

Resulting Canvas:  6’ high x 12’ wide The painting was painted in sixths (left and right halves; three vertically rolled sections), with time allowed between each section for the paint to dry. The first time Paul rolled out the painting on the floor was the first time he saw the entire painting at one time.  He was so excited to see it, he forgot to have Dulcinea add her signature at the end.