1999, Oil, 36 x 46  inches

sold

This painting is a study in red.

Red is not as large a color as blue.  Blue can contain both green and purple and still be blue. It can be both dark and light. Red can contain some of its adjacents, orange and purple, but diluted it looses its intensity and its name. Lightened it becomes pink and darkened it becomes brown. Because lights cannot be painted pink without diluting the feeling of red, lights have to be made more intense, going to orange and yellow.  Red’s compliment, green, brightens it in small amounts, but deadens it in larger. 

Red Still Life moves from orange red at the front to dark brown and purple reds in back. Sharp, not dark, blues and small touches of green and yellow punctuate the painting.  There are areas of neutrals; two diagonal, parallel bands of grayed blue and a strongly delineated “white” vase define the composition, while repeating red and blue in pale touches. The red plane of the tabletop moves back to the left diagonally in contraposto.