Powerless
Back before Christmas there was an ice storm in Toronto which knocked out the power to many places, including my house. We were without power for three days. During that time I thought I would start a new small painting to pass the time. Because we have a front porch, little to no light makes its way into the house, so I thought I would paint by candle light. I mean that’s what they did back in the day… Let me tell you, I couldn’t see shit.
I thought I would paint in black and white (because that’s all I could see). I mix my black using burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. I thought I did a pretty bang up job until I saw it in the light the next day, and noticed some areas were more brown than others. As far as the style goes I’ve been watching a crazy amount of vids on Picasso lately and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and wanted to try far less detail than I usually would go for. I used a way larger brush which prevented my from getting in really tight. I finished the main figure in the power out and pick up the rest after the new year.
I thought it might be cool to do a mind-body and spirit theme by adding another two expressions which would also fill the negative space. When I’m lost in thought I usually just space out and stare off to the side, and I figured the spirit should be rising above and more animated than the rest of the piece. I decided after the third face (mind) went in, that I needed to pull back the detail on the second face (spirit) and that I needed to either change the noses on the two secondary faces, or just the one on the main figure. It was really a tough decision for me. I had really loved how imperfect and lopsided it was, but it just didn’t match the other two. I reworked it, built out the right shoulder, pulled in the width of the head by her right temple, and added a bit of detail to the eyes and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
I kept the brown tone on the main figure which gives it more warmth and a bit of life. Planning on doing at least another one of these but full figure large-scale. Not going to be for a bit though, my latest painting is taking forever, I’ll share next post.
Later
bradleitch 