Sunil Gangadharan, ‘Battery’, Oil on masonite, 40″ X 44″
I have been exploring new ways of laying a face to the canvas and a technique that I am recently starting to understand is to pattern splotches of color rather than create defined areas of light and dark. It is a time consuming technique even if it looks very random. Previously, the light / dark areas seemed more deliberate and planned with the result that some of my older paintings had ‘islands’ which accentuated the lighting and lack of (no, I am not complaining, only comparing).
In this technique, I did not try and consciously paint ‘islands of light’. Rather, I developed the effects of light from using results of a higher valued hue playing on the transparency of the white ground overlaid with lower valued hues and thicker splotches of paint for completion of darker areas. So here are two new paintings and no contortional contretemps (as June playfully referred to questions/issues raised as a result of my posts).
Comments are most welcome.
Sunil Gangadharan, ‘Belphegor’, Oil on masonite, 40″ X 44″
Wow, these are a very significant step from your previous style, and the results are really interesting. These look much more naturalistic and less photograph-based. I think the first is the more successful, but I imagine your technique is improving rapidly and better ones are coming. Experimenting with a new approach is exciting; I’m at a similar stage with my horse project.
I love your placements of the head within the frame.
Sunil,
You have made a kind of breakthrough here that’s very good. I’m with Steve in my sense of what you are doing. The technique evokes the very pain and world-weariness that you have been working on.
It will be interesting to see what happens when you want to evoke innocence of naivete — what combinations of techniques you’ll be using.
And gee, no contretemps. Whatever will we do — look at the art, I guess….
By the way, there’s some key that I accidentlly hit with my thumb when I’m commenting here that discards everything I’ve written and forces me to start over. I can’t pin down what key or combination of keys it is, but if anyone has sussed it out, let me know.
I like it! Their eyes transmit their feelings from their hearts…
I specially like the girl… she looks like about to cry. Good portrait!
Love – love – love this! There is so much to be said for the “area” or “splotches” of color! It gives the viewer a freedom to go deeper into the painting. I love it!!
Sunil
I love them. I was not curious about how or when you created them, I just went WOW, Thanks for sharing your work.
Sunil,
I was directed back to an earlier post of yours (On color and oil paints) by Salley Dulley’s comments. I made a further comment there which WordPress is not displaying. I found that post fascinating and worthy and just wanted to tell you that I looked at it again.
Did you limit your palette in these paintings?
Wow. You’ve given your subjects an inner light that shines out to the viewer. This is so profound to see; it’s very spiritual and empowering.
My apologies if I did not reply on time, but I have been a bit busy of late with getting ready for a solo show this weekend, running family errands and some crazy deadlines at work. All together, life has been fairly quick paced – the challenge is to hold onto snippets that you can choose to ruminate on later… – and that is exactly what these fleeting snippets on A&P do for me – ruminate on them at leisure and at length.
I am glad the new directions in my painting are showing some promise and strength. The difficult part is to maintain the tempo, vigor and the character of these works – which I find most difficult; in fact the other day I scrapped a 36X48 inch canvas trying to better some of these works…
Steve,
It will be interesting what comes out of your hoarse project. I do remember the pictures that you took of them the other day being very evocative and hope that they will continue in the same vein..
June
Hmmm… “evoke innocence of naivete ” – not too sure how that is going to work out, but will be interesting to try. Thanks for the thought.
Angela,
Yes, the eyes strike a chord in pretty much anyone that sees some of my works. Hope that continues. I work on the eyes first followed by the mouth and then shadows of the nose followed by the rest of the face.
Iris,
Hope you come back here more often. This is a great marketplace of ideas and you take some and give some and it works very well. Glad you liked the paintings.
Bob,
For some reason I thought you might like the first painting “Battered”… Looks like my hunch was right.
June,
I need to follow up that post on color soon. It is a little dry, but it clarifies thoughts and is sometimes good to indulge in a little bit of theory.
Kimberly a.k.a. Tree (I suppose),
Revealed identities, I suppose.
Glad you liked the paintings and thank you for the kind words.
Sunil:
I certainly agree with everything that has been said. Am I correct in thinking that you have stepped outside your own cultural context to embrace the unknowns of the New York street? We have been seeing this for some time. But now it appears that you have arrived in a new place.
There is a sense of a fresh start in these, and with it an ability to reset your parameters.