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Awakenings in the Upper Room
20 x 16 inch acrylic and pumice on canvas panel
reserved for art show at City Arts |
I love interior paintings. I know I have said this before. They are a joy to look at and a joy to paint. This is the last of my 2013 paintings and it was a fun one in every way. I was looking at the image of one of Balthus' paintings Les joueurs de cartes and just had to paint a table with a checked table cloth, and this is the result. Once it was finished, the new theme for my art show at City Arts in April was decided...rooms!
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I already have enough work for an entire show because several of my paintings are set in a room of some sort. However, now that I have some direction on the theme, I am sure more interior paintings will emerge.
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One thing that always eludes me is how to keep layering my paintings once the composition is down. I liked the composition in this painting and didn't want to lose anything, but it was difficult for me to know how build up the layers.
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I went over each little check on that table cloth about three times and it just seemed to only change the color, rather than add interesting layers. The same goes for all the other areas of the painting...the girl, the carpet, the picture, the window..etc. It was tedious and with little result. The easiest parts to layer were the walls and ceiling. They actually had more layers at one point, but I wiped them off and sanded them down because it seemed to bury all the other elements.
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If I had a chance to change anything, I think I would have done this in oil rather than acrylic. It probably would have layered the way I was striving for. I am happy with it, but I do plan on practicing ways of building up the entire painting a little more...it's probably time to hit the sketchbooks and stay there a while.
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