Circle Squared


Strangely Familiar

About weird art cards that mean something in your hand.

I mixed up some rich reds and greens to start. I hate pure Christmas red and kelly-green, too festive. But I wanted the raw complement of fire and meadow to enliven the geometric puzzle of circle and square. Instead of staying flat, the fleshy torus is squished between two frames. The color intensity was managed through instinct. Shifting sap-yellow with olive-veridian and rust-orange with maroon-wine.

Featured Art Card

Circle Squared

A central wine background bleeds out in a vertical flow.

Art Process

Mixing Color

Earthy greens and purplish-red.

Next Week

Ornoz.

Thanks, Doug

Weekly Quote

“Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.”

~ William Blake

Doug Mandt

I make strange little paintings. If that interests you, they'll visit every Thursday.

Read more from Doug Mandt

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Strangely Familiar About weird art cards that mean something in your hand. A ball shaped creature named Ornoz stands convincingly cute. Tiny frail arms and small cloven feet sprout from a bulbous core. He plumps. Yet his teeth clench in a grimace. His arm and hand at left coil up in a twitch. Jittery brush strokes at his feet. Smearing clouds arc in the distance. The blow hole atop his head is cranked to the right. Featured Art Card Ornoz His orifice releases three illuminated bubbles. View...

Strangely Familiar About weird art cards that mean something in your hand. I started with a heavy wash of natural colors over line art. The background beauty adds a patchwork habitat, but it’s not grounding. The feral creature lunges forward. Fingers, claws, tusks displayed in a hunched sprint. The blocky billboard text “MiLK” was drawn as an after thought, completely unconscious. But it describes the creature’s pathway. Featured Art Card MiLK The milky stream leads to us. View Card Art...