Yellow Whorls, egg tempera on panel, 6 x 6 inches eachI truly enjoyed working on this small diptych (or these two paintings?), the small size requiring a different level of attention and a different way of using the brush from larger works. I actually had to work more slowly because the forms require greater precision. I found that in order to get each shape to work, I had to paint many many layers of color, warm to cool/light to dark, and back again. This lead to a subtly variegated surface that you may be able to get a sense of by clicking the detail below, which of course is much enlarged from the original painting. One area is different from the way I painted it originally: the shadowed area on the lower part of the right panel. It had been a bluish color, based on the fact that it was a metallic part worn of its paint. I could not get that color to work alongside the strong yellows, so changed it (many times, I must admit) into yellows more consonant with the rest of the painting.
When I wrote the post on beginning this work, a reader, Julie Siegel, thought that the panels worked better as stand alone paintings, not part of a diptych. I go back and forth on this; feel free to chime in with your opinions. I've posted the paintings separately below.
They work better together , the forms seem to flow from one canvas to the other, reflecting and interrupting the light.
ReplyDeleteCheryl
These are luminous and full of grace, either way.
ReplyDeleteI like them all, but the paired ones are immensely pleasing, counterintuitive but one feeding the other like not quite identical twins. The singles seem to me more like landscapes. Your pale yellows remind me of the closing segment on CBS Sunday Morning which is usually a minute or two of filmed nature with only natural sounds; last week's was of deer in the snow, greys, duns and whites, but there was also one of pale yellow beech leaves against the snow, utterly magical.
ReplyDeleteThe intense blues of vast areas of lupins are out in force along the freeway out of LA.
Have a great week, Linda's Lookout
What a cheerful sight on a Monday morning! I like them paired, but I like them the way they are pictured here on the blog. I enjoy seeing that sweeping curve move from the bottom of one image right into the top of the next one ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments; it seems a few of you, including some emails I got this morning, like the pairing. Ms. Wis., you, along with my brother, suggested the vertical pairing, something I hadn't thought of and which seems to work really well.
ReplyDeleteThe intrinsic joy of the diptych is that the parts are each individual and augment each other. They are already separate and joined, and the viewer gets to experience either condition, at whim. Once the artist chooses this form the dipt is cast; there is no turning back. Always great to see your new works! Dark yellow, what is it? Green, brown, purple? Can yellow be dark, or are we all just pretending?
ReplyDeleteI echo Kim. Shadows on yellow--a challenge to figure out all of those warm, cool, green, violet, and gray variations. These panels are beautifully observed, composed and painted. I think both side by side and up and down orientations work well.
ReplyDeleteYellow is one of those "happy" colors, bright and light in value, that are very appealing; I think there must be something psychologically positive about it. It is a balancing act to paint the darks, keeping enough light and color in them. I use ochres, along with umbers and siennas to mix the darks with cadmium yellow medium, plus ultramarine blue and chrome oxide green. A challenge, but for me not as much as painting light and shadow on a red object.
ReplyDeleteI prefer the side by side pairing. the vertical seems to imply (because of the way the curve continues) a continuation of the same space and then doesn't deliver this, thus creating an irrelevant mystery. whereas the side by sides are in a dialogue that the viewer can participate in.
ReplyDeleteInteresting: many preferences. I too like the vertical pairing. Not sure if this creates "an irrelevant mystery." Actually, when they are side by side, I believe that creates a middle space. Whatever, you have stimulated people and conversation and that's a great thing!
ReplyDeletePS: Curiously, in the garden, yellow is one of those colors to which clients have strong reactions. Some love it, but many have strong negative reactions. To me, so many of the early spring blooms are yellow (Eranthis, daffodils, Forsythia, Cornelian Cheery Dogwood etc.), that I love the color.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think I'll consider the work a side by side diptych, though of course if it ever goes out to a new owner, they can hang it to their preference. As to that "middle space", Julie, I think that would refer to the space between panels in comics, called a gutter, which allows for a leap of imagination, a "closure", or dialogue. This idea is from a wonderful book called "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, which covers many issues of aesthetics.
ReplyDeleteAs for yellow, I'm surprised to hear anyone would have strong negative reactions to it.
Not too much of a yellow girl here; I grow white daffodils!
ReplyDeleteAltoon
ReplyDeleteA lot of comments.
My big comment is you really have to do a sculpture- Yellow Whorls is really a study for a relief. Do it in clay and I will fire it for you.
Sam
Ok, we've got a not-so-fond of yellow person so it's not universally loved.
ReplyDeleteAs for sculpture, Sam, I'd rather keep on with the illusion of volume rather than actual volume; I love the process and challenge of it.
Hello Altton,
ReplyDeleteFor one who only loves yellow sometimes...and in certain combinations
or contexts usually.... I absolutely adore these works!
To me they are masterful and I cant beging to contemplate together, separately....
its more about I need to drink them in however they come..... the somehow hit a deep place within!
Thank you for such inspiration!
thanks so much, Sophie. It's odd how sometimes we make a work that just clicks and transcends much of our other work; I think that it's just dumb luck, with of course all our experience thrown in.
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