Thursday, September 29, 2011

Comedy Drama--Going a Different Direction

Jarring--that's what I realized this painting was, jarring. It also had no follow-through with a theme or content. I had started the painting because I love the stone ruin idea. This ancient Roman ruin face just had to have a place in the modern world, and I was determined to make it so. I took heed of comments on the first painting I did when people thought it was scary, so I created the happy face to go with it. The rest of the painting really had no purpose, and was just covering space.

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My stubbornness often doesn't let me quit. Adding black to a painting like this is how I've finished many of my collage pieces, but I really didn't like that solution. I decided that toning the painting down with veils of acrylic paint might add some mystery to the piece and get rid of the jarring quality. So I mixed up matte medium, white, blue and black acrylic paint. Putting this over transparent watercolor was new to me, so I didn't know how the under-painting might react. I created a new stamp copying the pattern from the statue (ovals and lines) and created more interest and continuity.

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My thoughts then went to the question of how to give this piece some content beyond the masks and I came up with the solution of using banners with play titles on them. I did this with more white acrylic, and scratched calligraphy. Can you read the play names in this photo? ( Clouds by Aristophanes, Hamlet, Our Town, West Side Story, Twelfth Night, and The Doll's House.) I'm not sure that's it's done yet, more calligraphy to enhance the play names, perhaps.

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And in the midst of this creative process, I finished another Matisse inspired piece.


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Aloha, Mrs. 29"x21"

1 comment:

Mike Godfrey said...

It would be interesting to see an image of your first painting of this face, and perhaps the original photograph of a fragment of ancient sculpture, that inspired it. This idea has been evolving for so long!