Treeptych

[Bartc]

In lighter news, despite being chased by drizzle showers at Portola Vineyards in Portola Valley, CA yesterday, I did manage 3 paintings. They are a set entitled "Treeptych". 28"x11.5" soft pastel on Dark Blue, Butterscotch and Wine PastelMat. B. Charlow 2023.

 

[Terri]

Nicely shaped tree- I like the large bending branch. Interesting color backgrounds from these papers. I like each one!

Do you have a favorite?

 

[Jo Castillo]

Very lovely. Three beauties.

 

[JStarr]

Nice treetych! The differences on the different colour grounds are amazing, aren't they? All strong, but the middle one, despite my attraction to the angular strokes in the other two, may be the strongest.

 

[Artyczar]

What a strong piece! Beautiful, Bart. You should exhibit this. One of your best, indeed!

 

[Bartc]

What a strong piece! Beautiful, Bart. You should exhibit this. One of your best, indeed!

My hope is that it will be selected for a show on February. Thanks, Ayin.

 

[Donna T]

It's good to see you are still out there doing plein air, Bart, and I like these trees very much! It's so interesting how each one is affected by the background colors.

 

[Bartc]

It's good to see you are still out there doing plein air, Bart, and I like these trees very much! It's so interesting how each one is affected by the background colors.

Thanks, Donna. The riff off the background color was part of my intention. I like working on colored grounds, especially in pastel, but also in watercolor. Something exciting in the interplay.
The yellow one was done first to establish the drawing and value map. Red, then blue, each with a different value map. There are some colors repeated in all 3 which you might not realize.
I know that some would call these variants, but I prefer to think of them as a triptych. Wrestling with how to frame, because framing separately would encourage them to be separated, particularly by a purchaser. Framing as one piece triptych style would be frightfully expensive.
BTW, you'll always find me outside painting. No studio other than the great outdoors!

 

[Hermes2020]

Bart, These are excellent and I love all three (all tree?), but if I had to choose a favourite, it would be the first blue one.

 

[Bartc]

Bart, These are excellent and I love all three (all tree?), but if I had to choose a favourite, it would be the first blue one.

Thanks, Terri, Jo, Jay, Ayin and Hermes.
Maybe these will be a Rorshach test, Hermes?

 

[Hermes2020]

...
Maybe these will be a Rorshach test, Hermes?

Oh dear, I hope my choice didn't reveal too much about myself.

 

[Bartc]

Well, Hermes, as Ray Charles sang:
Am I blue?
Am I blue?
Ain't these tears
In these eyes tellin' you?
;=)

 

[MurrayG]

Hi Bart. Yes, really interesting how the base colour affects the take. I'm drawn to the middle cream (summer) but each has a mood. Thanks for the reminder, also, I like the strong composition.

 

[Bartc]

Good way of putting it, Murray. Changes moods, like changing keys in music. I did intend that.

Usually you use the colored grounds (or underpainting) to enhance some color range or compliment it. In this case that was not the intention. The background color was intended to modify the colors to reflect a different mood.