Sunday, April 22, 2012

Something on my Mind



Acrylic on 9x12 canvas sheet
Available through DPW gallery/auction

This was done for Lee's A Day Not Wasted challenge - a statue in Florence, Italy - complete with pigeons!  As is my usual style, I chose to crop in closer and focus on the head & the one pigeon that is standing on him. I kept the background nothing more than shapes with color so it wouldn't compete with the foreground. And the foreground's detail is defined only by value changes. 

For the statue & the bird, I worked primarily with Cerulean Blue & Prussian Blue - mixing with various colors to change values. Everything from Payne's gray, gray mixer, dioxazine purple & unbleached titanium was added to create different shades of blue - a great deal of the mixing was done directly on the canvas.

The background colors were totally different - using gray mixer, burnt sienna, van dyke red, unbleached titanium and naples yellow. Hopefully the switch in color palette helps to separate the foreground & background as well.

A fun little painting!

4 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

What a beautifully painted statue! Your shifts in value are exquisite, Nancie! I must say I suddenly find myself feeling sorry for this dignified man not looking so dignified with a pigeon on his head. After all, we all know what pigeons do...

Nan Johnson said...

Thanks Sherry. I know what you mean about the pigeons. They always leave their "calling cards" behind when they leave! LOL

Jenni said...

I love your interpretation, interesting to read about the colours you used. I usually paint with Acrylics, but have decided to try oils. Have some on order so wish me luck!!!

Angela Sullivan said...

What a nice entry to the challenge.

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