Looked Down On, watercolor, 12x16"This painting was the result of a challenge. One of the assignments we had at a recent workshop was to paint a landscape in loose, broad brushstrokes with free color and using line for its own sake, after the style of George Post, or Henri Fukuhara. After I finished my landscape, "To the Lighthouse" (featured in an earlier post below), another participant asked whether that style could be used with the figure. I stated it could be used with any subject, and was then challenged to demonstrate. I painted "Looked Down On" without any pencil sketch, I drew colorful lines with the brush with abandon, added color shapes that extended beyond the lines, revealed and covered shapes and volumes very freely, moving fast and focusing on the emotional tension between the two figures. It felt very much like sculpting. It was not my usual subject matter or my usual approach, but it was a very exciting adventure and a very liberating artistic exercise.
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