Oil On Canvas Over Sculpted Forman, Baas Relief
46x70 Inches
This picture started out as an oil, flat on canvas, I had every intention of keeping that way. One of the better backgrounds I had yet lucked upon, nice movement and a satisfying composition of warm colors; ultramarine rose, earth orange , raw umber. I liked the gritty black line tracing throughout the rectangle like a cowboy wrangler's lasso, under, around, below and over the top. . On the other side of the studio I was delighted with a pose which emerged out of group of sketches that I had worked on for several weeks. A drawing of a dancer; I eliminated one of the arms and enlarged the other to balance the leg carriage underneath. The hair streaming off to the left compensated for the absent arm. I was very fond of the torso and wanted to present it unfettered by limbs, like a classical bust. The shoulders, breast shapes and tummy are an arrangement that fit together in a most appealing way, my favorite precinct of the picture. What I did not anticipate was the warm medium dark back ground would not be easily overcome by a cool hued figure. Warms tend to dominate cools when located behind. To create contrast it, the body would have to be a very light blue and….it just did not work! I was blinded by belief and anticipation , the requisite optimism i I need to create something from nothing ;I did not expect it would fail,.. The figure would not visually lift off, separate from its background. Being an airborne dance movement increased this imperative. I brought the picture up from my studio to the gallery and soon I overheard a disparaging comment. I was crestfallen, dashed, hurt…destroyed!...the painting returned to the storage rack for two years. The observer was correct. However during that period I never stopped considering it, pulling it out and reconsidering strategies , contemplating a the means of liberating the figure. How to let it soar above the background? After the success of Black Beach Beauty, came an epiphany; I saw in my minds eye the gleaming form which now appears to the left. I cut out the blue figure in canvas, so many pieces dropped to the floor. Over period of six weeks I carved a three dimensional figure and then transformed the background into undulating planes interposed.