When Cucaro pulled his steel palette knives away from the surface, he left sharp, vertical ridges of paint separated by deep, microscopic valleys (clefts).

• Capillary Attraction: When the liquid varnish is poured onto the level painting, capillary action physically pulls the fluid down into the deepest, narrowest crevices of the dried paint first.

  
  

• Self-Leveling Behavior: Because Cucaro used a high-volume "flood coat" rather than a thin brushed glaze, gravity and the resin's natural surface tension forces the liquid to behave like water filling a rocky canyon. The resin pools inside the low spots until the fluid level rises completely above the highest impasto peaks, curing into a single, completely flat, horizontal plane.