Psychedelic visionary art of Jussi Löf

1.3 The canvas

This time I was using a 110cm x 110cm cloth canvas. Paper, card board, hard board, wood -almost anything that acrylic paint sticks on is good. However durability can bequite different depending on the material.

Some like to have a completely white or black background. I find white very disturbing and almost impossible to paint on. Black is better, but offers almost nothing to get a grip on. That is why I prefer to mix the last layer of gesso with black acryl to make it naturally random. In visionary methods, having something random to start with is quite essential.

I also prefer a smooth surface, because it allows greater detail. The texture of the cloth must be smoothed out, which requires a few layers of gesso. When thick enough layer of gesso is applied, the surface

can be sand papered completely flat. Sand papering is absolutely optional, and I don't always bother to do it. However if very fine brushes are used, one notices that - the smoother the better.

1.4 Creating basic patterns

As every cloud watcher knows... Just look carefully and forms start to appear.

Using a roller I've made some more black and white textures and already accentuated some interesting shapes. These first layers I sometimes paint with white gesso and gesso mixed with black.

This stage starts to look quite 'Gigerish' with the caterpillar textures that a roller can produce. Very inspiring indeed, you could just continue this path to the realm of biomechanical.

1.5 Ghostly shapes

Here I've used some brushes to create round shapes. In the top part some red colour of the next stage has been applied. Some sort of a cave or a deep forest is starting to form. The center of the painting seems to be collapsing towards depth. Now that I look at it I see unintentional resemblance to my previous paintings. (Rider In The night, Swirl)

An entrance, a cave, a tunnel into the underworld. I seem to have found a very pleasing and interesting subject that is constantly present in my subconsious paintings.

1.6 Adding colour and detail

A slightly transparent layer of red has been added over everything. Actually a normal acrylic paint is not thick enough for a complete coverage, so paint can be poured almost directly from the bottle. However adding a little water is a good idea. Different shades of red were used here again to add some randomness to the texture.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture when only red was applied, but this picture was taken after some white glow had been added to accentuate the details.

Comparing this to the previous stage. It seems very obvious why some shapes have been accentuated. This is how visionary painting works. Randomness - observing - accentuating - adding randomness - observing - and so on. It seems very simple and almost like doing nothing, but the fact is that the visual part of your brain does all the work. Everyone knows computers have graphics chips for handling things quicker and better than the cpu. This is basically the same thing. ;)

Lesson is to forget your logic and and let your visual brain work. Remember that your eyes do not visualize the world or dreams - it is your brain. All you need to realize is how to turn the flow of visual understanding to a flow of visual output.

1.7 Adding more colour

See how the blue layer has been very carelessly applied. It is like a layer of mist over the painting. See the purple and dark blue shades that are automatically formed. The order in which the colour layers are applied has a profound effect on the final painting. Yet there is no exact order in which I tend to add the layers, nor is there a definite number of layers I usually add.Painting could be declared complete at any stage.

The evolution of shapes is constant. On this I applied some white lowing details like in stage 1.6.

1.8 More layers

The painting starts to look quite mind bending and hallucinogenic. Yellow with some white has been 'caterpillared' on the canvas. This time what looks like a glare on camera is actually painted.

I've could have left it like this. But since painting is so much fun I decided to continue...

1.9 Depth and shadows

Where white is used for detail and glow, black is used to add detail and shadow. Usually black is the last layer, but I've noticed that it's fine to use it between layers especially to fix some details.

Black is s strong 'carving' tool, when used right it can make a very convincing illusion of depth.