September 8, 2011

A New Painting: "Draped"

Draped, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 7 x 5 1/4 inches.


My working title for this painting was simply Blue/Green, but after giving my last painting an active title, Tied, I thought I would title this after the way the black hoses rest on the circular form: they are draped over it. There is other activity in the image: blue/red and green planes intersect at angles, so the curving black serves to stabilize the composition. I wasn't sure about keeping the rust red in the area above the hose, but ended up feeling that I liked the additional color there; I'm not sure it was the correct decision though. Any thoughts?

Sometimes I am very lucky in the images I find, such as with Tied, which I'm able to turn into strong paintings at just the right size. But it doesn't always happen. Although I like Draped, I don't see it as one of my best. Do you sometimes do work that you think: wow, I wish I could do that again! Don't we sometimes jump ahead of ourselves, make a brilliant leap forward, then drop back and have to slog ahead in an ordinary way?


3 comments:

  1. look at 'draped' next to the icon for your website at the top of the page. terrific conversation between the two. don't short-change 'draped' - you're just not used to it yet.

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  2. leilanibennett@kraemersw.comSeptember 8, 2011 at 9:46 PM

    Definitely yes on the touch of rust. Rust adds such a wonderful patina to everything it touches.

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  3. rappel, there is a nice correspondence with the angles of the two paintings.
    leilanibennett, thanks for the input on the red rust.
    Maybe this one will grow on me...I did enjoy working on it.

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