Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Work in Progress

I had a request for pictures of a painting as I work on it step by step. Here is a short slide show of my most recent painting showing it in progress in 3 steps.

4 comments:

KP said...

That looks good, why grey? What is the inspiration behind the work and the thought process as you proceed through the steps? are all of the colors in mind and in place before hand or do you do one at a time, waiting for the next piece to come?

Thinking in Color said...

I thought gray would make colors pop. I saw a photo of a house that had this color combination on it and I thought it would make a good painting. I know you can't see it very well from the photo but the dark color in the middle is chocolate brown. The original idea was to use light gray, dark gray, black for the center and a grayish green. Obviously the colors do change during the process as I see it coming together. I started with the light gray to get the background going and also to lay out the sections. I mixed the dark gray and green on the canvas into the light gray. I then decided black wouldn't look as good as a dark brown, and painted that in the center section. The painting it not yet completely done. I will let it dry and then dry brush more depth of color into it.

KP said...

Wow, I will need to see that in person, the dark brown looks black on the screen. What about overall themes? Rothko said of his work that the audience should experience a progression of emotions while viewing a painting but so far I don't know that he named specifics. Is there something in particular that you want to convey with these colors or should I wait until I see it in person?

Thinking in Color said...

For me the gray and brown are calm, without a lot of heavy emotion and the green is happy like summer. I love a good green. I think that because of my limited photographic skills it would be better to wait until you see it in person to make an assessment. I think it looks a lot better in person.