Red Awning, 12 x 12 inches, oil on linen
You may remember a recent post of the Flatiron in San Francisco. In talking about that painting, I mentioned that I liked the bottom half of it by itself. And here it is. Obviously, the focus changes (for one thing, the funky dome thing isn't even in the picture!) and it becomes an entirely different painting. (as opposed to a variation) I like this one a lot. Particularly, I like the loose treatment of the various elements; something I struggled with in the earlier piece.
The idea is to make it look like I just slapped down the paint and it made the right color, value and shape each time I put the brush to the canvas. The truth is, more thought and care goes into these strokes than into a more representational painting. In other words, making an abstract mark takes more thought and care than making a realistic note. For me, anyway. Some guys (and gals) make it look effortless, and watching them paint it really looks like they're just slinging paint onto canvas. I wish I could do that but I have two left brains and painting "intuitively" seems like a completely foreign concept to me.
3 comments:
I like those transparent darks - they add some nice depth.
Red Awning seems an appropriate title for this piece. We're immediately drawn to that note of color and I enjoy the area below where the figures get lost in the shadow (the real focal point, I think).
But, a note of caution.
I'm not sure that you're looking for criticism but I have busy fingers (the internet equivalent of a loud mouth, I'm afraid)...
The white building that the awning is attached to, reads as sky. This is obviously caused by the value/color similarities of that area and the sky to the left of the green building, but because these areas are so similar, it confuses the awning as a structure.
Granted, these issues exist in life, with reflective surfaces and saturating light... but because you've abstracted the shapes by cropping the tops of the buildings, and I can't help but see it as a floating awning. The green building advances forward of the white wall that the awning should be hanging from.
Had you considered using some of that brown-brick color from the first painting?
I really like the way you brought focus to the awning, the light on the car and the figure. Another of favorite area though is to the green building and the area to its left (viewer's).
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