The source for “Purple Skirt”
was first a sketchbook drawing and
then a 10” x 8” acrylic study. The awkward, intricate geometry of the image
continued to hold my interest; but it took several years to get back to it,
to extend it into a larger and,
hopefully, more complex painting.
Version 4, as purely flat as
it is, sets the basic composition. Here I leaned heavily on contrasts between
the Venetian red gesso and the ochre and yellow in the figure and window-frame.
This was the basic-research part of the painting.
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| Purple Skirt-4 |
Version 7 was a start on the
ambiguous and atmospheric quality of the final painting, especially the
treatment of the head.
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| Purple Skirt-7 |
I could have continued in the
direction the painting took in version 9. Here the weight and posture of the
figure fall in a natural
manner. I had to leave these attributes aside in order to get the surface quality that became my central concern.
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| Purple Skirt-9 |
In version 10, the lemon
yellow of the couch-back gave me
an idea of how to build the color. I eliminated the yellow in later versions
(there ended up being a dozen more variations), but I did keep the paint-handling the color had suggested.
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| Purple Skirt-10 |
When I was done with version
12, I had most of the basic elements in place, but a long, hard slog was
necessary to reach the finish-line.
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| Purple Skirt-12 |
The final painting has the
kind of surface physicality that I’m fixated on. It’s what I’ve been calling, "saturated transparency," for
lack of a better term. I hope I can carry it through
to future paintings.
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| "Purple Skirt"-oil on canvas, 36" x 36 |
