Temptation

[stlukesguild]

After completing Persephone I started work on another painting that had its share of difficulties. This may have been the first painting where I began consciously building upon ideas inspired by Gustav Klimt... in spite of the fact that he always loomed in the back of my mind. It certainly is my first use of the halo. This is an early stage of the painting...

I began making a greater use of colors bounced into the flesh-tones...

I was looking at Balthus' gnome-like faces with the squatting figure...

Several weeks after "completing" this painting I went back and reworked the figures a good deal. I felt that the squatting figure was incredibly awkward... especially the way the arm was cropped and the way I jammed her in to fit at the bottom of the painting. I had been intentionally avoiding cropping the figures for some time... thinking of the painting as a stage as opposed to a window... but I failed to recognize when this idea became forced and led to a poor composition. I also felt the standing figure was unsettling... almost prepubescent in appearance... awkward and uncomfortable... so I fully reworked both figures. I had to paint both figures out completely with a matte acrylic that was nearly the same color as the paper I'm working on. This led me to use the same as an under-painting on all the figures from here on... which allowed for repeated erasures and major changes.

I took the photos of the reworked painting some years after completing it. My one studio partner always hated the painting. He began to develop Parkinson's about a year and a half ago and one of the symptoms can be dementia... and his increasing erratic behaviors ultimately resulted in me and my other studio partner pulling out of the studio. The tipping point for me was when he vandalized this painting... about a year ago. He scribbled over the face especially the mouth and eyes and then scratched into the surface using some sort of metalic tool... perhaps one of my print burins. I ended up hanging it on my main work wall right where he could see in order to repair it. I had to apply a good number of layers of acrylic and sand these down until I had a fine surface again. Then I reworked the pastels and paint until no one except me can tell where the repairs were made. After fixing it, I took down all my paintings and moved them to home and safety.

 

[Artyczar]

I really like the blue light shimmering in the face in the crouched figure.

I'm sorry to hear about your studio partner, and to hear about him vandalizing your painting. That's no good, but it's also very sad. My mom had Lewy Body, which is like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's together. It can be very difficult to deal with the dementia. It was a learning experience for me.

 

[stlukesguild]

I empathize... but I would empathize more if he followed his doctor's instructions and quit being a grouchy old curmudgeon. But he always was a grouch old curmudgeon... the disease just made him increasingly belligerent and unable to get along with others. He's repeatedly called the police on our neighbors because hi didn't like their music. He bitched about what I was playing one day. I think it was Bruce Springsteen. He kept yelling: "It's the worst! The Worst" I decided to teach him a lesson and popped on Nine Inch Nails.