Month: May 2018

Commission – Homage to Joan Miro (second stage)

Once the under painting dried I selected a mixture of burnt sienna and a touch of Pilbara red to glaze in by rubbing the landscape area in the composition.

Text (“Fairh”) short for Fairhaven, in lower right required some refinement.

Then I lightly sanded the upper area before I rubbed in a very thin Pilbara red and scumbled in a light pink.

When the lower area dried I thought it looked a bit dull so I scumbled a pink in parts.

When this thoroughly dries I can glaze burnt sienna over it that should produce an orange brown. At this stage objects diminish as the colour takes over. Also felt that the composition required more balance on left side so I’m thinking of placing Miro’s octopus-like image floating in the sky of ‘Catalan Landscape’ in this spot. Once background colours dry all the interesting over painted detail can be emphasised in a graphic way. Still a way to go yet. Just trying to approximate the bruised but orange background and a quite acid but glowing yellow of the sky takes time because of successive layering but worth the effort.

COMMISSION – Homage to Joan Miro (first stage)

Background

This client had fallen in love with the art work of Surrealist artist Joan Miro and asked me if it was possible to come up with an image that was homage to his work but not a replica or copy but somehow retain something of my style too. It would be an interesting challenge because I tried to absorb ideas and techniques from Max Ernst, Paul Klee and Joan Miro as an art student and still traces remain.

 

We both chose Miro’s The Hunter ( Catalan Landscape ) as a guide regarding the colour and aspects of the composition with colour and line elements taking precedence. Texture as an element was the background onto which lines and flat shapes were used to depict objects and figures. The dimension of the Miro was 60×90 cm approximately but my client’s painting required to measure 90×150 cm meant that too close a resemblance to the Miro would never work. Instead of a Catalan landscape I said I’d come up with something else and bring it up to Melbourne when the painting was in early stages and see if colour, composition and subject were acceptable because changing the size may have made colour intensity too much and space elements may spread, loosing compact design and focus. I wondered whether or not the sky’s intensity would be a bit overpowering transferred to a large canvas.


Instead of a background Catalan Landscape I chose a Surf Coast scene at Fairhaven.

Underpainting

Detailed objects refer to each client’s activities and personalities, beginning the journey of homage to Miro meets the Fairhaven crew.