Although I have been concentrating on landscape paintings lately, there are times when I take a closer look in the landscape and pick out some details. The seed pods of these hollyhocks I had in my garden intrigued me very much. Their shape is exceptionally beautiful and intricate and they have a paper thin texture.
It took me a while to find the right fit for them in my way of painting, I did not want them to look too realistic, yet in order to capture what intrigued me there needed to be some detailing.
To add some sharpness to their brittle appearance I used charcoal that I washed over with a very fluid layer of white paint. With that,an element of chance is added to a painting because you can never predict how exactly it will work out. I find that I really like to invite chance into a painting as a way to open up the process. This painting is build of many thin layers of paint, allowing earlier versions of the seeds to show through, they are set over a pale blue color field that softly melts into the surrounding background color.It's a 20x24", oil on linen.
2 comments:
This is beautiful! I clicked on the photo for a better look and what I got then was probably about life-sized, so I could really see the lines and subtleties. To me this succeeds in just what you say you were after, subtle and abstracted yet descriptive.
Thanks so much, Rebecca!
Well, this is my example of using line against soft colorfields - just what we were discussing last time.
Loved the etching on your last blog!
Post a Comment