Shadows

Shadows, oil on gessobords (diptych), 7x10 inches

I have a memory from my early high school art class from when  we were learning the color wheel. The teacher was explaining that certain colors on the spectrum are used to oppose each other (thus opposites on the actual wheel) in certain situations, for contrast.  I was intrigued by this, because it brought to light the fact that my humble artist eye had always sought out contrasting visuals.  Later I would bring this into discussion regarding black and white photography, trying to convince an old friend that the best b/w work comes from high contrasted light....she disagreed.  Oh well, you can't win 'em all. 

This painting, Shadows, doesn't necessarily support color contrast (the colors are more triadic when using the color wheel), but light contrast.  I actually pulled my car over in the middle of a busy street because the light was so striking,  and I hiked up and down to photograph this entire hillside.  When I later viewed the image, one gessobord just wasn't going to do it, so I used two. 

This is also one of the few times I have attempted to tweak the color on my computer because of how difficult it is to photograph these colors.  I'm sorry to say, I don't feel like the  image above is a good representation of the actual paintings, but I'm not sure if I can get a better image without professional lights or photoshop.