Monday, January 17, 2005
Painting Night Waves
I started this painting over the Christmas holiday. I have been playing around allot lately with spirals and waves. This original concept actually started when I was in a meeting going over a project and instead of concentrating on what I was supposed to be doing I began doodling waves on a page.
About fifteen years ago or so I had created a music tape from a local NPR program called nightwaves. The tape had contained some really cool progressive music and I liked the tape so much I created artwork for the cover of the cassette case. One might think because of the subject matter the painting has something to do with the recent tsunami tragedy but it absolutely does not. Ironically though I had started the major work on the painting just a few days before the tsunami occurred.
The painting is more about shapes, movement and color than anything else. Deep down though it also has much of it’s inspiration from an area in Florida I visit all the time, at least once a year. I have a tendency to romanticize the area especially this time of year since I live in Ohio where it is always cold and gray. We most likely wont see the sun here until maybe April or so.
The colors I am using are bright deep and rich. I am contrasting the dark blues and purples with the bright white and yellow highlights. I try very hard not to mix the colors on the canvas. I want the subtle difference in colors to lay next to each other on the canvas and be mixed by the eye. I am also testing how I can use hard lines to define the basic shapes and use the negative space to create areas of multiple shades and textures. Sort of like using crayons in a coloring book.
Another technique I really like to use is building thick layers of paint so that the shadow of the light as it shines across the surface creates even more colors and variations in tone that in reality do not exist. It is almost like the light effects you will find in bas relief sculptures. The photo your seeing (If I am able to upload it correctly ) is the painting about halfway completed. I will be adding some more thoughts on this painting as it progresses.
About fifteen years ago or so I had created a music tape from a local NPR program called nightwaves. The tape had contained some really cool progressive music and I liked the tape so much I created artwork for the cover of the cassette case. One might think because of the subject matter the painting has something to do with the recent tsunami tragedy but it absolutely does not. Ironically though I had started the major work on the painting just a few days before the tsunami occurred.
The painting is more about shapes, movement and color than anything else. Deep down though it also has much of it’s inspiration from an area in Florida I visit all the time, at least once a year. I have a tendency to romanticize the area especially this time of year since I live in Ohio where it is always cold and gray. We most likely wont see the sun here until maybe April or so.
The colors I am using are bright deep and rich. I am contrasting the dark blues and purples with the bright white and yellow highlights. I try very hard not to mix the colors on the canvas. I want the subtle difference in colors to lay next to each other on the canvas and be mixed by the eye. I am also testing how I can use hard lines to define the basic shapes and use the negative space to create areas of multiple shades and textures. Sort of like using crayons in a coloring book.
Another technique I really like to use is building thick layers of paint so that the shadow of the light as it shines across the surface creates even more colors and variations in tone that in reality do not exist. It is almost like the light effects you will find in bas relief sculptures. The photo your seeing (If I am able to upload it correctly ) is the painting about halfway completed. I will be adding some more thoughts on this painting as it progresses.
