Transitions with Color, Design and Smoke

Stephen Sondheim  observed that artists discover essential simplification as an effective tool only after years of experience.  Time and experience elevate the artist’s vision to find  power and enduring effect in the essential nature of a work and not in the camouflage of complication. Making musical theater like Sondheim’s is  collaborative. Collaborations catalyze experience. The collaboration quickly reveals new possibilities, new directions, and new techniques. Collaboration offers a moment of transcendence to see intimately how others see your work.  Your collaborator spies on your personal process.  Collaboration  catalyzes self revelation. After collaboration the artist can reassess their process, their motifs, their expectations.   I wanted to approach a work done originally in collaboration as a single authored work but, with the effects of collaboration still resounding in me.  After that experiment I was  moved to revisit other earlier works of mine. I  pushed them to accept my new attitude of broader experimentation, a broader embrace of risk, a broader disregard of expectation.  In a recent interview Woody Allen noted that when making a movie his original intentions are profoundly different from what he actually makes.  The intention serves as motivation, not a guidebook.  Making movies is collaborative.  Here is an example of  a recent collaboration with Max Dunlop. I begin first with Max’s photo  as altered by me in Photoshop. The next example shows you our 48×48 collaboration. I follow that example with the first step in my own re-interpretation of the material  then, I present you with the second step in that process.  Watch as original intentions give way to the paint and the exploration of the artists.
example 1, the photo.

Max took the shot by placing the camera almost on street level  then slightly shaking the camera during the exposure.
example 2, the collaboration.

Max tilted the image to give a vertiginous effect. I worked on heightening linear perspective effects.
example 3, my own effort without much atmosphere.

example 4, my own effort with application of more atmosphere.

To continue,  I have an example of the simplification of design  coupled to the heightened application of color. These  examples begin with the photo first  then followed by the original more complicated design example which is finally followed by the design as simplified and fortified with veils of complementary color.
example 4, the photo

The photo was taken facing the light with the camera tilted down 45 degrees and positioned 1 foot above the water.
example 5, the original painting

The tree reflections were reconfigured to form a”V” for design unification. Color was also unified with warmer tones in front and greens in back.
example 6, the simplification with heightened color.

The background has melted away into atmosphere and ambiguity. The contrast in the foreground is increased.  At last,  in my final examples I get to the title’s promise of “Smoke”.  I have begun to paint with smoke.  Carbon being black meant that I would be  subduing color rather than amplifying it. As a child, I recall carbonizing  the lead soldier molds with smoke.  I thought I could apply a similar process to paintings. I aimed to see if the soft wafts of smoke could unify a painting and add a mysterious atmosphere. I have later  applied colored glazes to other smoked paintings.
example  7,without smoke.

example  8, with smoke applied.

The smoke has added a veiled fabric of mystery uniting the work in a darker moodSmoke.  To help you see how smoke appears in a detail I have an example from another painting of a close-up of the smoke on paint.  The application of the smoke depends upon the quantity of soot released by the flame and the angle of painting over the flame. This angling of the painting above the flame serves to direct the smoke like a brushstroke. Before the smoke is fixed in position by the use of varnish or paint it can be removed or adjusted with water.
Final detail, example 9 of smoke laid over oil paint, then varnished.