"Solar Storm" is almost finished

Caution: due to the intensity of the yellow paint, you should not look directly at the painting below without first putting on sunglasses. You've been warned.

I am finally (almost) done with Solar Storm. Yesterday I went to school and picked up where I left off on Saturday. I added fluorescent yellow highlights and burnished it with yellow ocher. It reminds me a of a larger version of my painting Meringue, just as Horror Vacui is like a larger version of Raspberry Divine. Maybe it was because I was hungry, or because at some points I began to apply the paint with a silicone kitchen spatula, but the colors started to remind me of artificial cheeses or honey mustard sauce. Speaking of honey mustard sauce, I suppose now is a good time to share this great recipe I have for it:

just mix
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon distilled vinegar

together in a bowl. It's delicious!

Anyway, back to Solar Storm. Doesn't this part remind you of macaroni (or some other pasta) and cheese?

The most tedious part was filling in the honeycomb cells. I know I could have left them unpainted, but sometimes I think it looks a little too unfinished that way. And when I painted Katrina, I filled in each and every cell and was very pleased with the result. Of course, at 12"x16", Katrina is much, much smaller than Solar Storm. I probably should have thought about that. Fortunately, I had some good music to get me through the painstaking process of painting all those cells. Yesterday it was Digable Planets. Remember them? (Yeah, I am showing my age here.) Nothing like good early 90's hip-hop to help me stay focused. I take my painting music very seriously. I love creating playlists on my computer so I'll have the right songs to listen to in the studio. Another song I am really feeling right now is "New World" by Bjork. Outside the context of the relentlessly depressing film it came from, this song from the ending credits of Dancer in the Dark is actually one of great hope and soaring optimism. And what better theme music can a great big yellow painting have? Click the the button below if you want to hear it.