There's something about this that reminds me of my early (stress early) years as a little Catholic girl who sobbed while watching "The Song of Bernadette" on the afternoon movie. (What was that 70's afternoon movie program in the Boston area that showed all those old movies? I think the guy who used to be Bozo hosted it - Frank Averuch - God where did I pull that name from?) It's like the bowling pins are standing on the mount in some holy light - like when poor little Anyway - this is a painting from class in April. Anyone who has taken any drawing or painting classes knows that you get these still lifes (lives??) that are just colored boxes or shapes. The goal is to learn how to handle the values of the shapes. Sometimes everything is one color and sometimes multi-colored.
This exercise was used to teach us about underpainting. Underpainting is when you use just one color and white for the entire painting. It really teaches you how to capture the values of the color, without using color. This is a very traditional method of painting -(think Vermeer). Then, when the underpainting is complete and dry, you lay on the color and the tones of the under painting show through and give you the value changes in the color. It was sort of a revelation for me and I loved the whole exercise.
I tried this myself in my studio and I'll post that one tomorrow. BTW - this is another large painting - maybe 2' x 4' again.
