Sunday, September 22, 2013

figure ground




This painting is titled Green Formula. The sky area is bright greenish-yellow, while the green shapes at the bottom are a shade of lime green. I want to investigate this piece more.  As I am painting these, my primary concern is figure-ground relationships and activating the space through color. The largest shape, dark green and rectangular, suggests that the lime-green shapes at the bottom are holes. This is done by careful attention to value, and the greenish color wanting to link up with the yellow background. But the green shapes also  feel as though they are in front of the rectangle.There's also the ambiguous gray shape at the top right…does it go behind the rectangle? It certainly appears to. The single red hue is a tomato-red, and it's a very powerful force. I like mystery in Art. 




Monday, June 24, 2013

Artistic freedom

Juan Miro. Dutch Interior I. 1928.
So this is what Miro did with The Lute Player (17th century); parts of the original painting survive.The dog is still there; and the architectural square at the bottom, the post and ball finial at the left. The white tablecloth is very prominent, but where is the woman listening? I'm still looking for her. This was amazing to me; both that he was inspired by this piece and that he worked off of this image.What I love here is the color.


The Lute Player by Henrick Martensz Sorgh.