Monday, May 4, 2009

Samana beach two - step VI... and submitting a painting to an annual art contest.

I gave another go at the Samana beach scene...

... and finally opted for a soft subdued background, the only version I could sympathize with for some reason. Slightly darker values in the upper part, a few more reflections from the bodies and I'll call it quit. I find it difficult to reconcile working in the garden and painting. I need to speed up to meet my "one painting a week" objective...

As I did last year, I am submitting a painting to an annual art contest covering the island of Montreal and beyond. I choose this painting because it achieves a fairly high degree of realism with few brush strokes (the shoulder was finalized with 3-4 brush strokes flat) and a very limited palette, for the figure in particular (2 colors, white and black).

With this painting, after 2 layers of paint one the under painting, I felt I had said enough. The under painting shows through in many areas giving it an unfinished look in a close up view, yet it reads perfectly from a couple of yards. I don't expect this bravura style to go far in the competition... nonetheless, this painting is perfectly me! I like realism but not at the expense of freedom, a key element I want to achieve in my art process...

2 comments:

amber said...

Mmmm this is awesome I love the look of the short strokes :)

Ron Gravel said...

Amber, one of those blessed moments when everything seems to fall in place like magic... a characteristic that is associated with the vast majority of your works. At times, it seemed that you could have been throwing balls of colors at a canvas... and the result would have been the same: another stunner of a painting!