Play in the Park – A Picture + Word painting (Work in Progress)

Detail from Play in the Park

18 x 24 inches, acrylic paints on gessoed masonite

 This time around I'm showing a couple of details from another Work In Progress, Play in the Park. The concept is how different groups of people, all watching a Shakespeare play performed outdoors in a park, can be in their own little worlds. All the world may be a stage......but in this case different plays are going on in different parts of the picture.

As is often the case with my paintings, I have the concept of the painting itself.....the visual story I'm telling, but I also have an artistic intent. Usually its a technique I want to try to learn about , thru actually using it in a painting. In this case I wanted to see just how little detail I could manage to include, without loosing the form I was painting.

In the case of the face and hand, in the section above, I really enjoyed using a broad brush stroke to indicate the mass of the hands, the cool lavender on the tops of the fingers with the warmer colored shadow strokes between the fingers.

In this crowd detail.......

 

 I tried really hard to see just how many details I could omit, and still have the individual forms and gestures read correctly. I did have fun smudging things back, every time I stayed true to my normal habits.....and added too many details. I tried, instead of adding details, to give quick brush strokes of a vibrant shadow color or a swoosh of a highlight of a colored T shirt.

Practice of a variant of my usual working habits takes a bit of getting used to......but is rewarding in the results.