Week 97

We have a few photo shoots that we’ve been saving since we wanted to take some time to photoshop them into a more complex / ideal composition. In this one we really focused on placement. We used different photos for hands and faces and slid horizons to all fit in harmony using the golden ratio. His spine falls on one, the horizon and deck on another, and the hand on boat on an axis. That was technically speaking fun to do, however very time consuming.

When we got into the studio we laid out a cascade of color. Could you imagine painting a white shirt with burnt umber? The almost blackish color threw me as I worked to get the color of the light shirt shadowed from the warm setting sun. I love painting white fabric, there are so many colors in it. I mostly love where the sun, penetrating the shirt, wraps around the little torso in an alive red glow. The sail on his little boat is illuminated similarly.

I loved working on this one - the canvas is vintage- one of my grandmother’s that is older than I am. I’m not sure what she had painted on it, there was only a faint trace through the primer she laid on top of it. The canvas is irregular and feels full of story already. Once we finished, laid down our brushes, I realize that the story, although with many chapters, was just beginning to be told.

Flori

45” x 40” | Oil on Canvas