The Golden Staircase

Friday, October 7, 2011

Today I decided to approach my Where am I? sketch in an abstract way, semi-abstract really because the challenge was to create a good painting while still making a recognizable depiction of an actual location.  It had to be a vertical to suggest a staircase going up, up and up. My color scheme was cool dominance with warm relief with accents of green. Leaving white paper for the stairs allowed me to move the eye up and through the composition.  Then I looked for the form that would best describe the feel of the place and of course it was the rectangle, blocks of buildings, windows, cars, steps, walls, even blocks of green grass. For me, playing with shapes of tone and color like this is the real joy of painting and what keeps me coming back.  When done correctly, the more changes made creates more harmony to which can then be applied the discordant notes.  In this case the lines of the pen add variety on top of the blocky shapes already laid down. The lines worked perfectly to suggest the railings and the steps which symbolize this unique staircase and adds the reality I needed.  It also let me add curving lines in a predominantly straight lined drawing and directional lines to the aid the eye's journey.  The two folks climbing the stairs accomplished three things:  Scale, perspective and color harmony, not to mention another element of realism, another step away from pure abstraction.  Lauren Karski guessed where it was immediately and since it was done on watercolor greeting card, she will receive it as a prize for her effort.  

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