Latenight Artwork

So, I've been finding that the only time I can manage to squeeze in art is in the late hours. It also serves as a nice way to unwind the day. Last week I tried to do something with this 18x18 canvas that I have and it totally flopped so I had to start over. I painted the canvas white again and let it sit in my garage for a few days. Tonight I went for round two. As I sat down I didn't really have anything in mind (which makes starting a challenge sometimes). But, I just started throwing paint on the canvas and this is what emerged.
As it started to look like fire I couldn't help but think that it was inspired by a fire that we witnessed earlier this evening. As we drove home we saw smoke and stopped to watch an abandoned factory building burn. The kids thought it was cool. I took a quick snapshot (been trying to keep my camera handy these days). Here's what we saw.
Maybe you can see at least a little of the resemblance.

As I paint, I hate to waste paint. So I rarely clean a brush between colors. Instead I keep a spare art pad handy (Lately it's been a 11x9 book) and when I need less of a particular color on my brush I just do some random designs on that blank page. Tonight, as i finished up the 18x18 canvas I had a pretty ugly looking scrap paper sitting there in front of me. Not wanting to waste the paper, I decided to shift my focus to at least make it worth looking at (some may still argue that point). I looked around for some inspiration and saw, on the shelf in my office, a 9/16 bolt. I'm not entirely sure why it was sitting there but I turned it into my paint brush for the next hour. The result is the painting below which is a base coat of leftover colors brushed on in random patterns and a top layer of acrylic paint applied with the head of a bolt. Even if you don't like it... it was fun, and in a weird way represents the life emerging from the recycled paint of the fire.