Week 8 part 2: Day - To - Day Painting Color as light Color as shape
In nature, light creates the color. In the picture color creates the light. Hans Hoffmann
If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I started the daily paintings that are discussed here, after an accident in the middle of June, which resulted in a fractured pelvis. In order for my body to heal itself, I had to rest ( read lie about). As part of this recovery program I began to paint with the materials I had to hand, oil paper and some oil paints. In this blog, I am writing about work completed during the middle of August. I was now able to walk a bit and get around with the use of a cane. I was even able to go outdoors. These excursions were very limited. Whereas, in June and July I was not even tempted to move because trying to move resulted in immediate attention getting pain, now I tried to get up and out. I learned the hard way that I had to respect my body’s limits. Faced with the continuing limitations to my mobility, the temptation to fall into depression became, in some ways stronger. Once again I had to accept my limits and stay aware of the present moment. Through acceptance (hard won acceptance), I learned something essential; my happiness is not dependent on having my desires met. I had to focus on the light and turn away from the darkness knowing that sinking into depression was not going to help me heal. I had to once again teach myself to find light. In these works I use color to create light. Each of the pieces presented in this blog use color as the key element creating space, and air, and all substance. I used an unusual color palette in the work produced on 8/15/19 . On the side there are clear, bright yellows and blues and magentas, which were perhaps, carried over from the Bonnard inspired work . The pairing of those bright complimentaries with the acidy green color is very unusual for me. Circles crop up in my work from time to time. This time, the circle motif sort of reminds me of a globe. Is the globe coalescing? or disintegrating? I think a balance is struck and maintained between the side verticals and the rest of the image. Each component has equal importance, neither area is monopolizing the picture frame. The viewer's eye moves back and forth and around. As I look at the image I notice the little flecks of orange in the ocean of blue-green,. That orange ties back to the bands of color on the side.
When the color achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also. Cezanne
In this piece, completed on 8/17/19, I gave in to circles and orbs and continued to explore the acidy green contrasting it with the softer blues and violets. The paint is handled very loosely in this series. The orbs in this painting, are obviously made up of brushstrokes and yet they almost appear to be three dimensional. They are each self contained and buoyant. They seem to float above the surface of the page, but then they lie back down. Even though this looks like it was painted very quickly, it took two days to complete.
Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Pablo Picasso
I am still using that acidy green color in the painting completed on 8/18/19, but the color scheme is inverted from the previous day. Here, the violets and blues predominate. The entire page is full of movement and energy, the greens and violets and blues are in a yielding and responsive relationship. The green and yellow orbs seem to be emerging, improbably, form a gaseous swirl of blues and violets,
Color is a power which directly influences the soul. Wassily Kandinsky
In each of these paintings the marks of color make up larger areas, often you don't read the marks except as a part of a shape. Yet they create energy and make up the field of color that is the painting.