Under Autumn Ashes in Pompeii – Abstract Oil Painting by Laurie Rubell

Under Autumn Ashes in Pompeii

Under Autumn Ashes in Pompeii is an original abstract figurative oil painting by Laurie Rubell, created across two canvases. Designed to be displayed together, the canvases form one unified composition filled with movement, layered color, and expressive brushwork.

Each canvas measures 40 × 29 inches. Although the two canvases are intended to work as one painting, they can also be separated to create a different relationship between the images and the surrounding space.

How This Abstract Oil Painting Was Made

This painting took approximately four months to complete. I hand-stretched each canvas over a wood frame rather than using a store-bought canvas. I work without preliminary sketches, allowing the painting to develop and change directly on the canvas as I paint.

I began with a wash of dark blue oil paint across the blank canvases. During the painting process, I turned the right canvas so the wet paint could drip in a different direction. Those drips became part of the composition and helped determine where the painting would go next.

Using more than 50 styles of artist brushes, I gradually built the surface through thousands of brushstrokes, lines, drips, shapes, and layers of oil paint. The abstract and figurative elements developed through this process rather than from a predetermined image.

Close-up photographs reveal details of the layered paint, brushwork, color, and surface that may not be immediately visible from a distance.

  Under Autumn Ashes in Pompeii Abstract|Figurative oil painting. 

 Painting Details

• Original one-of-a-kind oil painting
• Two-canvas artwork designed to be displayed together
• Each canvas measures 40 × 29 inches
• Hand-stretched canvas
• Signed and dated on the back
• Studio visits available by appointment

 
Part 1 – Why I Create Two-Canvas Oil Paintings

 Read Part 2: How My Abstract Diptych Paintings Developed