James Abbott McNeill Whistler

The paintings of Whistler (1834-1903) have been a significant influence on my work - one that I don't mention as much as I should. The beauty of his compositions and his use of closely-related colors to create tonal harmonies have long been an inspiration, and these qualities are embodied in Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The painting is one of my favorites, and I always go to see it when I visit the museum. 

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl 
James Abbott Mac Neill Whistler
1862, oil on canvas, 84" x 42 1/2"National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

A painting of Joanna Hiffernan - Whistler's muse and mistress - it was submitted to the exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1863 and rejected. It was shown instead at the Salon des Refusés where it became a major attraction. Whistler regarded the painting as an expression of his belief that a work of art should fundamentally be appreciated for its appeal to the eye - for what I would call its abstract qualities - rather than being viewed and interpreted only as a narrative.

I share that point of view, as well as Whistler's interest in harmonies of very similar tones of one color. His use of different whites in this painting, punctuated by the note of dark red hair, is compelling and beautiful, and I've gone in that direction in a number of my paintings.

Some examples of my harmonies in white:

Night in a White Room

1969, oil on canvas, 12" x 18"

Destroyed in 1974. An experiment with an oil medium caused the surface to splotch and discolor, and being painted in oil over an old acrylic painting caused the surface to crack and peel as well. Lessons learned.

Interior at Night

2013, oil on linen, 52" x 50"

Collection, Fidelity Investments

Bread Shop

1996, oil on linen, 14" x 20"

Private collection, Massachusetts

And a harmony in red:

Lola Likes Red

2016, oil on linen, 8" x 5 3/4"

A more minimal Whistler is in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum - a portrait of a later mistress, Maud Franklin:

Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket

James Abbott Mac Neill Whistler

1877, oil on canvas, 76" x 36 1/2"

Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts

Lola Likes Red

Lola Likes Red

8" x 5 3/4", oil on linen, 2016

In this painting, I tried to push the different reds as close together in value and hue as possible. I also tried to create energy without the overt use of a complimentary green color, though there is a faint green tint in her hair and in some of the shadows.

As usual, the face was painted first:

Lola Likes Red, in progress

One of the most famous painting using a harmony of analogous reds is Red Room (Harmony in Red) by Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Some critics consider it his greatest masterpiece. 

Red Room (Harmony in Red)
Henri Matisse
71" x 87". oil on canvas, 1908
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Apparently the painting went through three stages - green, then blue, and finally red - before it was delivered to the Russian collector Sergey Shchukin where it was hung in his dining room.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has another Matisse, painted three years later, that is also a good example of an analogous harmony in red: Red Studio.

The Red Studio
Henri Matisse
71 1/4" x 86 1/4", oil on canvas, 1911
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Piet Mondrian

Early Renaissance painters such as Giotto and Duccio, and later artists such as Paul Gauguin have been among the most significant influences on my work. An artist I don't mention as often who also had a great impact on my thinking is the Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), and specifically the abstract paintings he produced after 1920. These works, for which he coined the term neoplasticism, reduced the elements of painting to its essentials: a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines on a white background, and the three primary colors. Mondrian felt he had taken Cubism and abstraction to its logical end.

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow
18" x 18", oil on canvas, 1930
Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland

I was in high school when I went to New York City and saw his work in person for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art. Their classical simplicity and perfect balance, their minimalism, were extremely attractive and compelling. The idea of reducing color, shape, line - and figurative detail - to the minimum needed to express an idea has resonated with me ever since.

Composition No.II, with Red and Blue
15 7/8" x 12 5/8", oil on canvas, 1929
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Tableau 2
21 7/8" x 21 1/8", oil on canvas, 1922
Guggenheim Museum, New York City

Broken Glass

Broken Glass

10" x 7 1/4 '', oil on linen, 2016

This composition is a simple juxtaposition between the woman and the broken wine glass. I limited the color palette to cool blues that circle the warm notes of the woman's face, hand, and hair.

Two basic harmonies in color theory are in play here: the analogous and the complementary. The analogous is a harmony of closely related hues, such as the varied blues in this painting; the complementary is a harmony of two hues that are opposite each other on the traditional artist's color wheel,* in this case the blues and the gold hair. Analogous harmonies tend to produce more radiant and subtle effects. Complementary harmonies would be more jazzy and energetic. Each has its own beauty.

Basic Color Wheel
Complementary colors: yellow/purple, orange/blue, red/green

In the following example, the red in the center of each panel is exactly the same red, but the surrounding colors create dramatically different effects. 

        analogous                                                   complementary    
         (radiant. subtle)                                            (jazzy, energetic)       

In contrast to Broken Glass, where the analogous harmony is predominant, my 2012 painting Hat Party is full of complementary harmonies, adding their energy to the narrative.

Hat Party
7" x 8", oil on linen, 2012
Private Collection, New York

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* Isaac Newton is generally credited with the invention of the color wheel in 1706, when he arranged the colors created by a prism - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet - into a circle.

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Subway Riders

Subway Riders

30" x 40"     2014     oil on linen

Subway Riders is finished, framed, and now at the Adelson Galleries in New York. This painting - and Mr. Epps - will be in the inaugural exhibition celebrating the gallery's new location at the Crown Building, 730 Fifth Avenue. The opening reception is next Tuesday, May 20th, 5:30 to 8. 

As I worked on this painting, it quickly became an exploration in complementary colors, starting with the bright green and red of the woman's jacket and blouse. Those colors are counterpointed by the complementary yellows and blues of the men's jackets on either side of her; this is then set against the complements of the muted blues and yellows that echo in the background. Meanwhile the dark notes hopefully work to keep the eye moving.

Chocolate Truffles

I finished the second painting based on the composition of a woman eating a chocolate truffle.

Chocolate Truffles

12" x 7 1/4"     oil on linen     2013

As in the first version, I kept to an analogous harmony of closely related colors. Often when I go in this direction, I'll add a note of complementary color which can add some jump and energy to the visual experience - perhaps could have made the ribbon green or blue - but this painting wanted the quiet of staying totally focused on warmth.

Red Beret

With all the recent hat paintings, I thought I was done with hats for a while, but one more came along ... a "spin-off" from the woman wearing a blue hat in my previous picture, Hat Party. I liked the gesture and the reflection in the mirror, and thought the two elements with some changes would make a good composition on their own. 

Red Beret

5 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2012

I'll add another image, of another woman in a red beret, painted twenty years ago. Perhaps an interesting contrast between the two, visually and psychologically: one an analogous harmony of warm colors ... the other a complementary harmony of green and red.

Portrait: Woman in Red Cap

5" x 3 1/4"     oil on linen     1991

Hat Party

Hat Party

7" x 8"     oil on linen      2012
Private Collection, New York

Hat Party is done and awaiting its frame.

In my previous post about this painting, all the hats were finished except for the woman's on the right and I was about to decide on the color of that hat: blue or orange, or -- as suggested in the comments -- purple. I'd also made a decision that the woman in green would be holding a mirror, not a drink.

The drink had not felt right. I'd vaguely been considering whether to give her some sort of noise-maker to hold instead, or a party horn, but resolving the problem was not yet much on my mind. The mirror idea suddenly arrived out of nowhere, in a blink, and was the right solution. It worked both in the abstract -- allowing me to add an interesting shape and an extra note of color -- and in the narrative -- connecting the two women with a certain logic.

As for the hat, when time came to paint it, I went straight to mixing blues and found the right tones fairly quickly. I never seriously considered orange ... or purple, though that could have worked fairly well too. I like the triangle of bright primary colors -- red, blue and yellow -- spinning in counterpoint against the green.

Below is a comparison I made this evening using Photoshop; the only difference between the two images is the color of that one hat (and it's reflection in the mirror). It's always interesting to me to see how the change of a single color can dramatically alter the look and feel of a painting, can shift the visual experience.

More Hats

Hat Party is moving along well. All four faces and three hats are done and I've decided to replace the left-side woman's drink with a mirror. My next decision will be about the color of the remaining unpainted hat. A bright blue would create a triangle of primary colors to play off the green note ... or ... an orange (or another red or yellow) would create a triangle of warm colors, playing off the cool green in a different way. The first choice would probably turn out more vibrant and energetic, the second more subtle and enclosed. Will see. 

Hat Party ... in progress

7" x 8"

Meanwhile, I've finished two more small paintings involving hats. Between these two, and the above, and the recent Party Hat and Man in a Yellow Hat, I think I'll be done with hats for a while!

left:     Pastry Chef        5" x 5 1/4"                      
right:   Gator Hat           4" x 5"
both oil on linen, 2012  

Woman at a Window

In this little composition I'm playing with a simple harmony of blues that complement the warmth of the woman's skin and her red lips.

I'd originally thought to make her dress a deep ultramarine, but decided instead to go with a much lighter blue. That allowed the shape of her dark hair to become an important and distinct element ... becoming a counterpoint and balance to the shape of the curtain.

Decisions like that are not the result of much premeditated thought ... they just seem to come along as one paints and they feel right. Realizing how or why it works only comes after the fact. An odd process.

Woman at a Window

7" x 4"     oil on linen     2012
Private Collection, Massachusetts