Friendly Chat

It's interesting how the personality of a painting evolves from start to finish. When I finished the design I was thinking all about light and shadow and how I could really use this painting to show the influence of light on its surroundings. I started with a violet and yellow orange wash over the surface of most of the painting to separate the two sides.

I liked how the figure on the right would be partially shaded and the other would be more subdued. I stuck to that part of the plan, but as I gradually worked through layers of the painting I let the result of the previous layer influence what I did next.

In between working on this painting I worked on a couple other paintings that were much more abstracted figures where the shapes were what was important and not the details, so the dichotomy of working a little on this and a little on those no doubt also influenced how this painting proceeded.

As time passed I decided it was the interaction between these figures "conversation" that was important; I wanted the gesture of their postures to communicate their intimacy and that the details would shift more to the flowers and their surrounding. My goal was to portray the beauty of this friendship through a lovely setting that captures their warmth. By the time I finished I wanted to know more about them and wondered what they are talking about.
Arrives in a 24" X 20" brushed silver frame