Here’s a picture I painted a few
years ago. The inspiration came from a photograph taken in a stairwell in
Florence, Italy. The initial illustration seemed incomplete and I was at a loss
trying to figure out what the composition needed. I set it aside. Several years
later I dug out the unfinished illustration and figured out what was missing.
Painted with acrylic on untempered
masonite, I used glazes to build up the translucent darkness from a mixture of
viridian green and alizarin crimson; no black was used. I approved of the dark
mood, inspired by the backgrounds in many of Rembrandt’s paintings, but the
painting lacked an emotional counter punch. So I added the balloon.
This illustration has never been sold and
seen by only a handful of people, until now. What does it mean? I have an idea,
but what do you think?
I hope you’ve moved over to the new
Chubby Chatterbox. This site will be closing shortly.
