Nothing beats a quick, fresh and loose plein air painting session on a Saturday. Setting up on my roof deck, I decided to capture the TriBoro Bridge (renamed the Robert F Kennedy Bridge in a fit of fine fiscal judgment by the perpetually frisky, former fat kat of Albany.) My objective was to keep it loose, explore and play with the paint without an preconceived notions.
After the jump, my capture of the view above, zoomed in with by the power of mine own eyes…
The set-up… most 24 year old children are safe with these railings, steadfastly topping out at 6′.
Beginning with a fresh blue, painting a bit of negative space in the foreground, positive in the back.
Quickly adding some earthly crayola type greens, allowing myself the impulse to push some diluted acrylic around with my watered down brush.
Adding some deep crimson shade, tackling with the same approach, allowing the ghost of Jackson Pollock and his many imitators to drip on, and around my canvas.
Another shade of blue, working on the structure, topped out with a shade of sienna, not Miller for the record.
With a flat sense of green, and two reds (one a violent pink) the image is taking on a personality – the type of painting that doesn’t want to help around the house, rather, he wishes to brood and write poetry, perhaps indulge in the weed that kept inexplicably wafting upward to my rooftop perch, from, I assume, a Pent House apartment.
The dark round is always the important round. It is as if the painting is being punched in the face, and only parts of it recede into the distance. Violence is the known creator of depth, and death.
And the final painting. Being able to set up and paint quickly, without too much foresight is a splendid way to diversify from ones more process intensive work. This was just what I needed, and, of course, what you need for your walls.
Very Monetish- nice colors