Hard water and frozen fire, 2005

Hard Water and Frozen fire (2005), 4x 4.5 ft, cut Masonite board, spray painted with glass and a wood frame holding it together

This was my first experiment with spray paint and would lead me to make many more inspired art works with different types of spray paints.

I decided to call one painting “Frozen Fire” and the other “Hard water” to signify that things around us are not necessarily what they seem. There are so many aspects to be explored in the moving and vibrant gifts of nature that are water and fire!

To make these paintings, I first had Masonite board cut into the shapes that I wanted and painted the wood with a coat of white base. Next, I took some spray paint cans like those that graffiti artists use for spraying walls.

I was very happy with the result. However, viewers did not appreciate the paintings, maybe because it was a step away from what I had been doing before. They were much more abstract.
I personally very much liked that the background was glass and that you could see the wall through the painting.

These paintings were displayed in an exhibition in the Gallery of the Lalit Kala School of Art.  There was another painting in that exhibition that was also on glass. It was on entirely clear glass with painted fish using glass paint, (Sterre not sure if this what you wanted to say) it was sold but there is no photograph.

For a long time these two works, “Frozen Fire” and “Hard water”, were displayed in my office. Unfortunately, when I closed that office, they were transported to my home and left in a storeroom where they deteriorated from time and neglect