Flying Torpedo

Finished:

Flying Torpedo

2019, oil on linen, 36" x 48"

The colors of the individual torpedoes required considerable thought and experimentation. The ride that inspired this composition had alternating red and yellow cars, but I made numerous studies of different color combinations and sequences. All red or all yellow seemed promising, just red and yellow too, and then there was blue and green. 

In the end, I felt the three primaries - red, yellow, and blue - were the best choice, creating the most energy and movement. They are counterbalanced by the secondary colors - green, purple, and orange - in the clothing of the riders, and by the triangle of the three white shirts.

The final challenge was the background. Night or day? I started to paint a dark sky, but it didn't look right. A light sky blue was immediately better. Next, how to create the impression that all was airborne? Painting small people down below, or buildings or tree tops, made the composition seem too busy and precious. I decided the best solution was an arc at the bottom in a neutral color over stripes; stretching from side to side it would symbolize a structure below the ride. 

small sketch for the lower background

2019, pencil on paper, 2 1/4" x 3"

When I started to paint it, however, the idea of a winding line quickly took over. One more time the subconscious knew better.

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Amusement Park Ride

This is the final drawing for a painting that I'm currently working on - a composition of riders on an aerial ride in an amusement park:

Amusement Park Ride (final drawing)

2019, pencil on paper with green oxide pastel on reverse, 36" x 48"

The idea for this image came from the 'Flying Skooter' ride at Glen Echo Park in Maryland, a couple miles northwest of Washington, DC. Except for the carousel, all the rides are long-gone now, sold or demolished by 1970. I went there many times as a teenager and it was my next favorite ride after the roller coaster. Each car had room for two people, and by moving a large rudder in front, one could make it rotate and point in different directions while spinning around the central axis. A lot of fun for the time, but tame by the standards of contemporary rides.

photo from A General History of Glen Echo Park, by Richard A. Cook, 1997
https://glenecho-cabinjohn.com/GE-04.html

The initial drawings were simpler and included the rudder. I still may go back to this original composition for a smaller painting, but as subsequent drawings became larger, the rudder started to seem too dominant. I dropped it and added more cars and couples.

Amusement Park Ride (drawing #1)

1991, pencil on tracing paper. 9 1/2" x 11"

Amusement Park Ride (drawing #2)

1993, pencil on paper. 9 1/2" x 11"

Amusement Park Ride, in  progress, detail of upper left quadrant

ca. 21" x 24"

Twins

Finished:

Twins

2018-2019, oil on linen, 30" x 38"

My March 9th post was about how Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani - artists and twin sisters - came to my studio and asked if I would do a portrait of them set within the world of my painting. As the work progressed, I posted about adding the large background figure - the muse - and then about the color choices being made.

Now completed, I find that the harmony of closely related tones of warm neutral colors contrasting with the large areas of dark grays and blacks makes for a gentle luminescence, despite being rather subdued. All is further energized by the notes of bright color - the two drawings, the brush, the pencil, and the lid on the jar of water or turpentine - objects that could be considered the iconography of artists.

The final result is not a strictly accurate portrait - people who know the sisters may say they look a bit different from my representation - but the painting is an accurate portrayal of my inner feelings about them as a psychological expression, or perhaps better said, as an impression.

In the sisters' studio
30 October 2017

Sisters, in Black

All the dresses and the window are now finished in my painting of Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani in their studio.

in progress

30" x 38". oil on linen

I envisioned both sisters in black dresses when the initial composition was being developed, but later, other possibilities were also considered: all in blue, or one sister in blue and the other in black.

Three or four different deep blues were tried first, but none seemed right, and I decided to go with all black. The color immediately felt correct. It related to the ever-present black dresses in their paintings. All black was also integral to my original vision of a somber, neutral color palette, energized by a few notes of bright color.

All that's left to do are a few more small objects, the tables, and the wall.

my initial color study on palette paper

Interrogation of the Self
Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani
2017, oil on wood panels, 78" x 172" 
photographed in their studio

A recent example of this color palette is Nadine with Cigarette - where her red lips and the complimentary green blouse are the only bright notes.

Nadine with Cigarette

2018, oil on linen, 9 1/2" x 7"

Sisters

Work is progressing very well on the large painting of Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani in their studio.  

The hands and faces are finished except for some minor glazing. I was about to begin painting the clothing next, but instead I felt a clear need to add a large face to the reflection in the window ... the face of a woman that "watched" over the composition. She was not in the original drawing, but when I drew her, she arrived quickly, fitting in as perfectly as if she'd been there from the beginning. I smiled with the thought that she was the sisters' muse. Little did I know ...

in progress

30" x 38", oil on linen

I wrote the sisters about the addition and Farzaneh replied: " ... there is like another person who oversees us and lives with us in our world. This person is like a mutual ego between me and my sister. In our paintings even though we do paint portraits of one of us - which is often me - but we try to portray that person who is someone between me and my sister. It grows with us and we both contribute to her being. She is the actual subject of our works. We try to to represent her through ourselves."

That thought provoking insight into their work is one more uncanny item to add to the ever-growing list of positive outcomes when letting the subconscious dictate the painting.

The dresses are next to paint now, though first have added the bright notes of a pencil and a brush on the table.

______________________________

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Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani

Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani are twin sisters, known primarily for their collaborative works of art: multimedia as well as performance. I first met them in September 2016 at the opening of their exhibition, Projecting Her, at the Adelson Galleries Boston.

The exhibition was one of the most outstanding I've seen in a number of years by any young and emerging contemporary artists. Approximately a dozen paintings were exhibited, some quite large. They had worked in tandem on each and were also the subject of each. Videos were projected onto the paintings: curtains in a light breeze, legs walking. The end result was very evocative and thought-provoking, but rather than trying to describe the visual experience, here's a short video produced by WBUR earlier this year:

Iranian Twin Sisters Create Striking Paintings

Asleep
Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani
2016, oil on wood panel with video projection, 5 x 13 feet
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Since that exhibition, they have created performance pieces at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the work pictured above, Asleep, has been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts. Significant achievements.

Six months after that opening, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from them that concluded: "... we wanted to see if you are interested in doing a painting from both of our portraits as twins. Hope you want to."

They came to the studio and the idea intrigued me. The painting was not being commissioned; they simply wanted to be within the world that exists in my paintings. Normally, I would have declined, preferring the freedom of working without outside constraints or concerns, but swayed by the compliments and especially by the challenge, I agreed. Then I took almost a year before coming up with a composition that I liked, of  them in their studio.

2018. pencil on graph paper, 7 1/2" x 9 1/2"

Since much of their work seems to be about identity and the boundaries between individuals, I liked the ambiguity of this composition: not defining which sister is which, adding the reflection of one face in the window, and leaving unclear whether a mirror, poster, or painting is being held up.

A year later - about the average time I take between having an initial idea to getting to the easel - an oil painting is now in progress:

oil on linen, 30" x 38"

Fishbowl

The title of this painting while in progress was Woman with Fishbowl: #2. Now that it's finished, the title has been simplified to Fishbowl.

Fishbowl

2018-2019, oil on linen, 17" x 15"

In my last blog post, I was undecided about the color of the upper half of the wall - light red stripes or pale ivory ones - but as often happens, the final choice was neither. The yellow serves well as a transition from the white wainscoting to her skin tone and then to the orange fish and red blouse.

I also toyed with the idea of including a black cat, Mr. Epps, but he added an element to the composition and the narrative that took the painting in a different direction. And none of the preparatory drawings included a cat.

left: drawing #1  (initial sketch)

2018, pencil on paper, 7" x 4"

right: drawing #4

2018, pencil on paper with green oxide pastel on reverse, 17" x 15"

In the final drawing, the woman was facing outwards, but once I started painting, the narrative began to look as if she was showing or offering the fish to the viewer. As with the cat, that was not really in my vision of the composition. I decided to go with the profile - as she was in the initial drawing - preferring the dynamic of the woman and the fish looking in opposite directions, with neither engaging the viewer.