stlukesguild
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After Magdalena III I went through a period of really struggling. The next two pastel paintings are among my least favorites. Then I did a painting I titled Temptation.
I was pushing a couple of new elements in this painting. The figure to the left twists and turns more than any figure I had done up to this point. I also made the conscious choice to avoid the use of black... but instead employed a more subtle harmony of colors.
At the same time, I pushed the saturated color in the hair beyond anything "natural". I also kept pushing the use of sandpaper on the gold leaf to create a texture suggesting a weathered surface.
Looking at this painting now I find myself thinking "Not bad." Unfortunately, this painting no longer exists. For whatever reason... temporary insanity?... I decided perhaps a year later to drastically rework the painting. I ended up screwing it up so bad that it ended up being one of less than a handful of my pastels that ended up in the trash.
The next pastel painting almost ended up the same. I remember starting this painting with the intention of employing two pairs of complementary colors: red & green and blue & orange:
Strangely, I completed the entire background before I was really set as doing with the figures. Initially, the young girl was wearing a dark blue blouse with a star pattern in gold leaf... very flat... like that employed by early Italian Renaissance painters. But I didn't like this... so I painted this out with white.
I didn't like this either... so I attempted to sand away all the gold leaf and go with a flat color and no pattern. Unfortunately, it was impossible to sand off the adhesive beneath the gold leaf... and this even showed through when I attempted to paint over it. I ended up deciding to keep the gold leaf... but very subdued... very weathered.
And then I changed the blouse to Cadmium Red Light/Medium. I had a friend in art school who loved the combination of Orange and Green... which I never liked... so I thought let's see If I can use this color combination. At the same time, I upped the saturation in the green to a Neon Lime Green... and this seemed to work.
I was intrigued by the big eyes in the paintings of George Tooker... who like myself... was very much influenced by Early Italian Renaissance paintings. Around this time I also began consciously using color in the eyes that either contrasted or mirrored color elsewhere in the painting.
This would be the first painting where I employed flowers in a girl's fair (or in the halo). Persephone, after all, was the daughter of Demeter who brought vegetation to the Earth. Persephone was kept for half of the year as a prisoner of the underworld during which time all this vegetation withered and died (explaining Fall and Winter).
Amazingly, after a real struggle over the entire Summer, I completed the painting, Persephone, to my satisfaction.
I was pushing a couple of new elements in this painting. The figure to the left twists and turns more than any figure I had done up to this point. I also made the conscious choice to avoid the use of black... but instead employed a more subtle harmony of colors.
At the same time, I pushed the saturated color in the hair beyond anything "natural". I also kept pushing the use of sandpaper on the gold leaf to create a texture suggesting a weathered surface.
Looking at this painting now I find myself thinking "Not bad." Unfortunately, this painting no longer exists. For whatever reason... temporary insanity?... I decided perhaps a year later to drastically rework the painting. I ended up screwing it up so bad that it ended up being one of less than a handful of my pastels that ended up in the trash.

The next pastel painting almost ended up the same. I remember starting this painting with the intention of employing two pairs of complementary colors: red & green and blue & orange:
Strangely, I completed the entire background before I was really set as doing with the figures. Initially, the young girl was wearing a dark blue blouse with a star pattern in gold leaf... very flat... like that employed by early Italian Renaissance painters. But I didn't like this... so I painted this out with white.
I didn't like this either... so I attempted to sand away all the gold leaf and go with a flat color and no pattern. Unfortunately, it was impossible to sand off the adhesive beneath the gold leaf... and this even showed through when I attempted to paint over it. I ended up deciding to keep the gold leaf... but very subdued... very weathered.
And then I changed the blouse to Cadmium Red Light/Medium. I had a friend in art school who loved the combination of Orange and Green... which I never liked... so I thought let's see If I can use this color combination. At the same time, I upped the saturation in the green to a Neon Lime Green... and this seemed to work.
I was intrigued by the big eyes in the paintings of George Tooker... who like myself... was very much influenced by Early Italian Renaissance paintings. Around this time I also began consciously using color in the eyes that either contrasted or mirrored color elsewhere in the painting.
This would be the first painting where I employed flowers in a girl's fair (or in the halo). Persephone, after all, was the daughter of Demeter who brought vegetation to the Earth. Persephone was kept for half of the year as a prisoner of the underworld during which time all this vegetation withered and died (explaining Fall and Winter).
Amazingly, after a real struggle over the entire Summer, I completed the painting, Persephone, to my satisfaction.