Not Patriotism — Gouache

A couple of days ago I went to Arizona Art Supply and got a gouache set, a pointed sable traveler’s brush, and a block of hot-press watercolor paper. My new policy with art supplies is if I buy them, I must start using them the day I buy them.

This is my first effort with my new supplies. Started with red and a simple checkerboard exercise. Then did some blue, with a Leave A Blank Rectangle In Each Square rule, amended to allow for two at lower right. (I was learning as I painted that the ceiling fan’s circulating action caused the painting my ad-hoc palette to skin up. There’s some clumsiness and unintended dry-brush toward the top.)

When I looked at what I’d done, it seemed like a reductive, mutant version of the flag of my country, the United States of America. Instantly it seemed like an apt metaphor for the reductive, mutant version of “Patriotism” peddled by former President Donald Trump to seduce his misled minions. (I have said more than once that Trump is not a leader; he is a MISleader.) So my first Gouache foray became political, with red and blue mixed and watered to create text, signature and date.