Oil On Canvas
40X32 Inches
Oil and metal are the bedfellows of industry. A rich contrast arises visually when they are interposed in an artistic context as well. In “Copper Bonnet” the cold black ivory skin of the seated Haitian is at one end of the aesthetic spectrum and the warm brushed copper at the other(aesthetic-to feel, anesthetic-as before surgery,no feeling). The irony, these two elements are of the highest contrast (intensity) virtually separating themselves from all of the other detail. In the picture before you, color is inseparable from texture. Add the brushy movement in the background, the result is instinctive Mango. I can think of no school of painting to fit this into. I was born with the’ know how ‘to work this way. We are talkin’ the interposition of form, color, texture, movement retaining a sense of realism. I had it down via trial and error long before I went to art school (and found what I could already do was not teachable anyway). The cobalt violet and green behind fit neatly in middle of the fore mention spectrum , book ended by copper and black. The orange is a slight color subordinate of the copper color(very close).Orange is revealed under the black sanded away from her impasto’d arms and upper torso(I laid it under the black several days before planning on scraping away later).Orange serves as an allied sensory link between Bonnet and Stool. The brilliant blue derived similarly by sanding off areas of the black legs , complimenting the orange. I laid blue under days before as well planning the other color concert event later. The two arms and bowed torso provide negative spaces to poise the fruit-like breasts and allow the background color design to be observed looking through to background. I could not be happier with spacing of the arms and torso, for me it is the magic which makes this picture, of which I am very fond.