Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Atmosphere

painting, collage, acrylic paint, prussian blue hue, indian yellow, cadmium yellow deep, awagami paper, amate weave paper

"Without atmosphere a painting is nothing." -Rembrandt

When I first began to pick up the paintbrush a few years ago, I came across the idea that the atmosphere of a work of art is an essential ingredient in depicting the overall theme of the work. I thought that if a work of art could evoke a certain feeling or mood of space and time, that this could be an expressive foundation for the work itself.  It seemed an interesting jumping off point to literally create a mood that was, in itself, an atmosphere.

Another idea that caught my attention in a painting class is color vibration, or the interaction of colors placed side by side.  I decided to combine these two concepts, using my favorite (acrylic) color combination of Prussian Blue Hue, Indian Yellow, and Cadmium Yellow Deep.  (There's something intriguing about using colors straight from the tube - they seem so honest that way- I read that Van Gogh used 'pure straight colors'.)  And since collage is an obsession of mine, I used Awagami paper for my (somewhat elliptical) shapes on the left, and Amate Weave paper for the vertical shapes to the right.

It's all about the process, right?  Of course the concept is not just limited to a work of art - dance, music, a walk in the park - they can each have their own atmosphere.  What are your thoughts on creating atmosphere?


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