Description
paintings – Trace – a red arc across cracked grey
Wall art flings red paint in a wide arc rising from the lower left toward the upper right of a black-and-white ground — abstract painting in which the picture is a record of a movement rather than a drawing of one.
Technique and texture
The ground was laid in a thick paste that cracked as it dried into an irregular mesh — that crazing is real and not painted. The red was thrown across it in drops of different sizes, from fine specks to broad blots. Because it settled into the cracks, it forms thin red veins in places.
The motif
The arc does not close and breaks up into separate drops at both ends, so it reads as a path that was recorded rather than as a shape that was made. The density of the red is greatest midway along the path and falls off toward either end. The lower edge of the canvas is almost black and the upper almost white, so the movement travels out of dark into light.
Setting and placement
Hard contrast and a single colour keep their force at a distance, which is why this one can hold a large or an echoing room. A pale wall is where the cracked texture shows best.
- Technique: hand-painted painting on canvas, genuinely crazed thick paste ground, thrown red in graded drops, veins settled into the cracks
- Palette: black, white, grey, red
- Ideal for: living rooms, stairwells, reception rooms
- Character: kinetic, raw, high-contrast
Choose the size that suits your wall.
Trace above a sofa, a dining table or in a lobby
Trace is sold in 17 landscape sizes, from 80 x 40 to 340 x 165 cm. Let the red arc over cracked grey cover about two thirds of the furniture beneath it, which over a 200 cm sofa means 130 x 65 or 140 x 60 cm, above a bed 160–180 cm wide, 110 x 55 cm, over a 220 cm dining table 150 x 75 cm, in a long hallway 180 x 90 cm, and in a large lobby even 300 x 145 cm.
Select YES in the Stretcher menu and Trace arrives stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang. A frame for Trace is not required, and Without frame is the first option in the Frame menu. The cracked paste ground and the thrown red drops are the work of a hand, Trace is hand-painted, so it is not a print. Trace arrives in 15–45 days.
Questions about Trace
Which size of Trace fits over a 220 cm dining table?
Two thirds of the table is about 147 cm, so take 150 x 75 cm and the red arc travels across the length of the table.
Will Trace come ready to hang?
Yes, with YES in the Stretcher menu the canvas with the red arc is stretched on a wooden stretcher.
Is the cracked texture of Trace painted or printed?
Neither, the ground really cracked as it dried and the red was thrown across it by hand, so Trace is not a print.
Can I order Trace in a size not on the list?
We also paint the red arc on its cracked black-and-white ground as a painting made to order outside the 17 sizes.
