Title and Medium
Burning Flower. Oil on canvas board. 27 cm x 22 cm.
Artist's Statement
I mainly worked with blue ultramarine and yellow lemon, then with a little light green and vermillion red. In the background, I added some warm purple into the shadows in the manner of Van Gogh. My first intention was to give a radiating effect to the flower, as on photos of stars taken by the Hubble’s eye. The direction of the brushstrokes was crucial to evoke a burning effect. It was fascinating to recreate, by the use of cool green, the effect of reverberation of the heart of the flower. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to imitate the Master without making a caricature of his work!
Lessons Learned
- Perhaps, my painting is too much decorative and not enough realistic: a lack of air into it, a little as a tapestry.
- Some of Van Gogh’s starry skies were unconsciously in my mind.
- I like this disheveled burning effect of both the petals and background.
Marion Boddy-Evans, Painting Guide, says:
The background feels unresolved to me, like an idea got changed half-way through but you didn't quite want to loose the original. In some places the brushmarks work with the flower, echoing the shapes and directions, but in other places not. The background in the center on the right keeps wanting to look like a mountain peak, and on the left center there's a light line that's nearly vertical which I find distracting. If this were my painting, I'd turn it to the wall for a few weeks, then have another hard look.
