celebration 24, 16x20” as she looked at the end of my painting day
3:39 PM: this afternoon i started work on a new painting: celebration 24. it’s smaller than the previous paintings in this series, measuring just 16x20.” the reddish ground was painted at the same time as celebration 23, so it’s the exact same color: italian pompeii red mixed with a little titanium white.
the white canvas i left creates a great counterpoint to the pompeii red and playfully interacts with the shapes of the two tennis players.
celebration 23, 32x36” as she looked following the tweaks i just made to the lower right portion
1:38 PM: the area on the lower right of the composition wasn’t working, so i went over it and added a female basketball player viewed from above. the figures in this painting don’t jump out at you; rather they integrate fully into the composition as a whole, which is what i strive for in this evolving figurative abstraction series. moreover, if you’re familiar with the recently completed 2024 paris olympics, you’ll pick up on the references, albeit subtle.