Saturday, February 6, 2010

Ta Dah! The Finished Work


After many weeks and many many layers of glazes I have finally completed one of the designs i have been working on. It literally took a turn from the original landscape format design (shown below and in previous posts) into an interesting figure. It is amazing to me that the results came from a bottle design. Posted below is the transformation from original design to grisailles to the final work at the left. I haven't named her yet. Any suggestions??



Original design. It needs more division of space or fracturing.
This became too fractured and overdone. I realized i had to go too far to find the middle place to come back to.





I was able to "unfracture" it by going back to the original design and reworking it.








This was much better. I now needed to find the design within the design. This was accomplished by rotating the work and choosing a portrait format. Adding the first glazes helped to define the figure and i continued to develop her with subsequent glazes. I chose a phalo blue and cad red palette. It was interesting working with only two colors. Even more interesting was watching it take shape layer by layer. Working over a grisaille helped me stay within my value ranges.
Adding some opaques in the final stages added definition and depth to some areas needing more than a glaze.





There are approximately 20 layers of glaze on this piece. I am developing her counterpart and hope to share that also with you when it is done. Both figures developed out of one original design. The most interesting part of these works is that the biblical looking figures that are coming out of the designs have been subjects that have been on my mind lately and in my thoughts. Creating designs from your mind or memory will certainly bring more meaning to your art!

6 comments:

  1. Well done, Carolyn! Your perserverence paid off, and you made some great decisions. Can't wait to see the companion piece. Kudos!!

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  2. With twenty glazes I bet that looks amazing in real life. Looks sort of like a Japanese dancer smoking a pipe and playing the accordian. The nice thing about it is that there are definite shapes, but also shapes that become things in the eye of the viewer.

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  3. Congratulations Carolyn! It looks phenomenal!! Well done.

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  4. Whoo..this is amazing, incredible and such an evolvement..Your statement of creating designs from your mind or memory reminds me of Jim...when we ask how did he come up with his painting....and he points to his head. In tune with yourself!!!

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  5. It is good to see not only the painting finished, but also to review all the stages. As you have learned, so have we and I thank you for sharing this with us.

    Warmest regards,
    Egmont

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  6. Amazing process. The result is beautiful! I love the challenge of a title, and threw a few around in my mind, but I think it is best left to you..

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