Palette knife experiments - rust

I visited Foxton Locks and found lots of examples of rust to photograph, out of all the photos this was the one I felt which captured the layers and decay of rust.

This photo interests as it represents decay quite well, and links into my theme of addiction as an addicts life can fall apart, and rust aids in the process of decay and falling apart.

I wanted to try and create some responses to my photo as I find it quite interesting, with the different textures and layers. I decided I'd start on paper and create some experiments with acrylic. The first response I did, I used black, red and brown with a hint of yellow and after placing the colours on with a palette knife,  I folded the paper in half and peeled it back.

 I found the textures made reminded me of peeling paint or the layers rust leaves as it ruins the surface its on. I like this piece but on reflection, I'm not to keen on the symmetry of the peaks made by the fold as it doesn't look very natural or organic.

To try and solve this, I painted some one stroke flowers as a separate experiment. I painted them on paper I spray painted with green and a light coast of purple to break up the solid colour. I used white and blue acrylic for the petals and green and yellow for the leaves, I think this does disguise the symmetry of the texture.

I find the contrast between the two colour schemes too dramatic, and the composition looks a bit thrown together, but I feel it was just an experiment to see if I could draw attention away from the texture as it doesn't look as organic as real rust would look.

I decided I'd work on wood, as I find that its a more solid smooth surface, so theses less change of the surface warping once wet with paint. 

Heres photos of the process I took:

Added some undertones of green and brown

Added more red and blue and used a mix of stippling techniques and
dragging the palette knife across the wood.

The final outcome.

Above is a closeup of the textures, where the paints cracked, I achieved that by scraping the palette knife across half-dry paint, it lifted the dry paint but left the wet paint behind. I found this technique gave a very raw feel to the layers of the paint.

In reflection, this piece came out more dull than I hoped, I think this is down to the brown background created by the wood, as I've been used to working on white paper which will naturally make the acrylics seem brighter.

In response to this, I painted some white emulsion down first to help brighten the paints but I decided to work on the surface wet so the white would mix with the paints slightly, I thought this would help brighten the paints even more.

I found that the white did help brighten up the acrylics and added more texture under the paints too. However, I find this looks more like an abstract interpretation of rust, as it looks less literal.

But this is my favorite piece created with a palette knife influenced by rust.