Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A Fine Balance


Oil on canvas 22"x28"
This painting is about edges, and there is plenty of them in this piece. Edges, as I perceive them, are the lines of chaos between two areas of relative calm. Getting edges to a preference, hard, medium, soft, was a focus in this painting. The edge on a spherical shape is further away from the viewer than the center, so it helps to soften the edge a little to create the illusion of "roundness". The fine balance refers to how the plums are arranged on top of each other, and how the colors are harmonized. I actually changed the color of the plums from the redish hue to more blue. The blue plums haven't been available for about a year, and I find that somewhat frustrating. I hope they arrive soon, as I prefer working with what is actually there rather than making up color. The exercise was interesting in that I transposed what the color actually was to a color of preference. In that sense, this piece is furthest from realistic painting than previous pieces. The photo is not that great, dark in areas, light in others, I regret the depiction, its as good as I can get it without spending a whole lot of time photographing.