Tirade aside, that's fact one. Fact two is that this painting IS predominantly blue, and the subject is absolutely gorgeous! This painting was done for my good friend Courtney: newly indoctrinated Civil Engineer, Cell Phone Photographer Extraordinaire, and awesome all-around gal! She's always been one of the smartest people I know, and lately I've learned of her amazing knack for taking beautiful photographs, which was one inspiration for this painting. Recently she has graduated from college and made one of the first big steps in her new life, so I wanted to make something for her to celebrate that! (And I won't lie, part of the deal is that I get a print of one of her awesome photographs taken during one of our hiking adventures, which I am SUPREMELY excited about.) As for the subject of the painting, there is a bridge in Chattanooga at which she loves to hang out, and she has also taken a good number of her fabulous pictures of it, so we decided to use one of those for her painting!
Yes, that's right, I did just start out by slathering paint everywhere, which was a first for me, and definitely an interesting experience. The loose style was also a challenge, especially with the precise nature of the subject. I will admit, though, that there was another reason for this. Recently, I have been seeing the colors turquoise and red together more and more frequently, and I have become mildly obsessed with the combination. They just look so gorgeous together! And with the Turquoise color of the bridge and the expectation that there is wear and patina on older structures, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use that palette.
Considering that I'm still quite young and close to the beginning of my journey as a person and an artist, I'm attempting to try as many different styles, techniques, and approaches as possible with each new project, to varying levels of success. I feel that this painting was one of the better ones I've done as of late, so I'm excited about sharing it with Courtney and with all of you!
Thanks!
Sarah
*If you caught this as another bad pun about the color blue, bravo.