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Experience the highlights of Aeon, an abstract painting created by NYC artist Anduin Vaid. This condensed view of the process blends fine art with soothing ASMR narration, offering a calm yet inspiring look at abstract creativity. Perfect for viewers who love modern art, NYC artists, or relaxing long-form content, this shorter version captures the essence of the work without losing its meditative flow.

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Transcript
00:00Hello, and welcome to the very first episode of Calm and Colors.
00:18Before I begin painting, I'd like to take a moment in my studio collecting my thoughts,
00:24summarizing my tools, cleaning and preparing, checking my materials, and so on.
00:30This time I used to quickly disconnect myself from the chaos and noise that is the general
00:36world outside these days.
00:47I've developed my process through a couple decades worth of trial and error.
00:53One where I prepare each and every painting with a strong foundation from which later
00:58layers can build upon.
01:06As I apply the paint to the canvas, although I do think about these later layers, I'm mostly
01:12instilling a sense of calm in myself, a sense of peace, as that translates to the art.
01:19The idea of applying this initial heavy body acrylic is to make some form of barrier, such
01:24that the liquid layers in the future will remain mostly on the face of the canvas and simply
01:30not splash off.
01:37As I have created these paintings over the years, I have actually learned a thing or
01:42two, a bunch of dos and do nots.
01:45And for those of you playing the home game, I've learned that when you place heavy body
01:49acrylic onto a canvas, you need to do so on a mostly dry surface, or else you will have
01:56considerable difficulty getting it to work as intended.
02:01I've also noticed that working with liquid acrylics tends to be a lot easier for my own applications
02:05and needs, and the practice of such makes up a lot of my process.
02:13As a whole, I would say that I'm harnessing chaos.
02:16I am working with cats, if you will.
02:19Colorful cats, cats in tiny, labeled expensive bottles, but cats nonetheless.
02:26When I start using a color, there is usually no rhyme or reason about it.
02:31It's completely arbitrary.
02:33It is out of the ether of my mind.
02:37There are some days you wake up and everything is just blue.
02:40Your clothes are blue.
02:42You see cars on the street, all blue.
02:45Your bills, as they pile up in a corner, are also, as you guessed it, blue.
02:50But the idea here is, once a color is chosen, I will go about finding the harmony with other
02:56colors, to build this abstract landscape, as people often describe my work to me, creating
03:02my 2D and 3D new world of color.
03:07A lot of what I do is sitting in the quiet with my work, trying to think through it in
03:11my head.
03:13Not thinking at all, or just watching newly applied layers progress as naturally as possible.
03:19I tend to work at night because that is when things are, by and large, much more quiet in
03:24my neighborhood.
03:26That said, I should apologize in advance for any particular Brooklyn sound that may seep through.
03:32I have a very modest setup here, and living in a pre-war building does have its charm.
03:39I'm finding myself attracted to earth tones at this point.
03:43The challenge is to find the middle ground where I can blend things with such a deft touch
03:48that everything disappears one into the other.
03:52Sometimes I'll have to redo a layer, restart it if you will, because it doesn't settle
03:57exactly right.
03:59There are a thousand different variables as I work, all of which can be completely different
04:04from one day to the next.
04:06New York has this interesting aspect to its weather, whereby one day it can be the Sahara
04:11Desert in dryness, and then the next it can be the Amazon Rainforest as every surface of
04:18the apartment becomes alarmingly moist.
04:22As such, I try to mitigate things with opening or closing windows, blasting the air conditioning,
04:28or some amateur voodoo spells if all else fails.
04:32Nonetheless, it is very hard to work with chaos.
04:36Chaos doesn't tend to listen.
04:39It speaks a different language, and it's either itchy or angry, sometimes both.
04:45Because of chaos, the outcome from blending the same colors, in the same way, can be completely
04:50different from one application to the next, but I suppose at least it keeps things interesting.
04:58I don't often like to use yellow.
05:00I suppose everyone has their favorite two or three colors, and yellow isn't even on my
05:04top 75.
05:07But as the idea in this layer is to evoke some form of contrast and framing of the 3D texture
05:12around it, I'm working with it nonetheless.
05:16Just spraying it ever softly, spreading it with one of my high-pressure ice sprayers.
05:22Sometimes you just need a bright color to punctuate the darkness.
05:36Green is not a favorite color either.
05:38But unlike yellow, it does make it to my top 75.
05:42For whatever reason, I do gravitate to a good, stern teal.
05:47I like to mix it with a darker turquoise, and sometimes I'll add in a blue just to appease
05:52my friend Chaos, and in this particular case, create the perfect color of tropical water,
05:58somewhere far from here and warmly kissed by the sun.
06:07Using hues, I'm adding a little bit of red, mixed direct from its tube.
06:12When I cannot squeeze any more paint from a tube, I will fill it up with water, give
06:16it a tremendous shake, and create my own custom form of fluid liquid acrylic, sometimes adding
06:22in a bit of different color or medium.
06:26The end result is something similar to my golden fluid acrylics that I've used predominantly
06:31throughout the rest of this work.
06:33I can create many of my own blends in this manner, with specific, unique viscosities
06:39that all have different characteristics.
06:45You'll notice that I'm focusing on one specific area over and over again.
06:51Sometimes I can put down 50 layers in the same spot until things are just right, and sometimes
06:57it just takes one purple and one fork.
07:10There are several points later in the process where I will pick up the canvas and inspect
07:14it, and see how the light plays with it.
07:18I tend to keep the artist's lamp in my studio that hangs directly over my work area, a neutral,
07:23albeit slightly warm, hue.
07:25I'll also take my work outside into the sun and look it over, noticing areas that still
07:31need touch-ups or complete overhauls.
07:36The Tropical Blue blends again take center stage.
07:40And maybe it's just my desire to go on a vacation somewhere that isn't made of concrete and poison
07:45and general bad attitudes.
07:48But I enjoy this blend immensely, and it helps punctuate the long, unbroken, grey winter skies
07:54outside.
08:02As we're coming to the end, I start going through an army of touch-ups, little areas
08:07of intense, concentrated visual interest that I take great care to make as inconspicuous
08:12as possible, so they only stand out in certain lights.
08:16As my desire is to create a composition that is as cohesive and looks naturally made as possible,
08:23I will adopt unconventional means to do so.
08:26In this case, I take the paint tube itself, and apply direct portions of this neon fluorescent
08:32red, in tiny little slivers, almost as if it was dropped or splattered in some incidental
08:39way.
08:40It's odd because, although I'm much closer to the end of this painting than I am at the
08:44beginning, this last 2% always seems to take the longest.
08:50The only thing left at this point are the finer details, the tiny little almost nothings
08:55that I suppose would go missed if I didn't point them out directly.
09:02I made a decision a long time ago, with the options being, finish the sides in a single
09:08color, or let the sides of the canvas become part of the painting itself.
09:13The second option won.
09:15I like to have an infinite plane, whereby what you see on the front has continued on the side,
09:20and perhaps beyond that in your imagination.
09:23Sticking to the idea of the painting forming an abstract landscape, I also want the overall
09:28viewing experience to be very organic and natural.
09:32To achieve this, I will grab the old trusty fan brush, like another famous artist used
09:37to say, and work on continuing the various paints and textures onto the sides.
09:43Of course, always leaning on perfection, I take this time to see if anything else needs
09:48a touch-up or a change.
09:49Brand new brush.
09:50And what we do with our brand new brush is we remove everything.
10:14After I've removed the aforementioned everything, I will take the lacquer and apply a healthy
10:18mount in the center.
10:20Using as even of a brush stroke as possible, I will start to spread it around such that
10:25it covers the entirety of the surface.
10:28The idea here is to get as smooth and even of a layer as possible.
10:34It serves as both protectant and enhancement for the face of the canvas, allowing details
10:39in color that may have otherwise faded to burst through again.
10:46I have lived in New York most of my life.
11:06The charm, the people, the little neighborhoods and massive differences in culture, all so
11:12close together, shoulder to shoulder.
11:14It's brilliant to be able to take the subway from one neighborhood to the next.
11:19From Brooklyn all the way up to the Upper East Side where my old apartment sits next
11:22to Carl Schertz Park.
11:25Here I used to spend my days walking by the East River, people watching, admiring boats,
11:30staring off into the sky or looking out over Roosevelt Island.
11:34It's a totally different energy from this neighborhood to where I live now.
11:43Next, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my church.
11:47The place where I spent many, many hours.
11:50I used to go on my birthday and sit amongst the art, drawing and sketching, taking it all
11:56in.
11:57There's a certain magic there that I can't quite describe, but I always enjoy each and
12:02every time I go back.
12:10Now, making my way to Central Park.
12:13The giant boulders, the people all on their leisure, and yes, the distant New York sound
12:19of sirens and quickly moving craziness.
12:24Here, at the end of Brooklyn, with Brighton Beach, a place where I've spent a good deal
12:32of time with my family, watching the waves.
12:44Not so long ago, I used to work on 42nd Street, close to Times Square, at a horrible bank with
12:52a lot of broken people.
12:54At night, I would come home by the Brooklyn Bridge, and remember watching all the lights
12:58of the city fade behind me like a scatter of whispers.
13:05And last, to Kelly Park, close to my home where I've watched my boys grow up and the park
13:09itself being made new only a year ago.
13:17These are some of the places of my New York, and the pieces of me that I, in turn, place
13:22into my art.
13:24This is the city that I have loved for all of these years, and that has made me for better
13:28or for worse.
13:31Finally, we arrive in my studio again, where everything began.
13:38After 14 months, over 300 layers, 600 hours of video, a dozen life catastrophes, and so
13:45much more, I aptly name my painting Eon, and it is finished.
13:51I want to thank you for going along on this journey with me.
13:54Hopefully, it has brought you a bit of peace, a certain amount of entertainment, and maybe
13:59even a little bit of inspiration.
14:02This may be the first, but it most certainly will not be the last.
14:07And with that, I want to say thank you for watching, calm and colors.
14:24pour for help.
14:41Right?
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