Dark Ellipse, egg tempera on calfskin parchment, 6 1/4 x 8 in.
One thing that I like about doing small paintings which use details of agricultural machinery as their compositions is that I can find many motifs within a small area. In the case of Dark Ellipse, I did another painting based on the same machine, Angles and Bar, which you can see here. That painting stepped back, while this one zooms in. In Angles and Bar, the ellipse is flattened but here it is very subtle. The flat plane is contrasted with shadowed angles above it.
Dark Ellipse detail
Light catches a form mostly hidden in dark, the recess in contrast to the bright yellows above; even those in shadow carry warmth (a challenge to paint).
Love the light.
ReplyDeleteYes, the light bouncing around in the shadows! Cool. I mean warm.
DeleteThank you. Getting light in the shadows is always a fun challenge.
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