It's Project Month at Apartment Therapy, and what better opportunity to kick myself in the pants and try to finish something I've been working on for a year and a half…
As you may recall, my teensy studio is the locus of great experiment in all manner of decorative painting. This project, a ceiling inspired by Tiepolo, was meant as a practice run for a potential children's room project. It's usually best to figure things out at home before taking them to market.
But those leaves! I just couldn't get the right shade of green. Someone once said--maybe it was Manet or Corot--that Nature is badly lit and too intensely green, though I'm paraphrasing. I don't know why, but it's always been so difficult to depict leaves in a way that is both realistic and aesthetically pleasing. In my first pass, my leaves that were way too yellow, and not even remotely "Italian."
And here's where the experiment gets experimental. A dear friend and colleague suggested using Payne's Grey, of all things, as an undercoat, which is not even green but blue. It's a far cry from the way the Renaissance Italians paint trees with a reddish cast, but that didn't work for me either.
In this final try, I made a green out of colors I love and hate, including Sap Green, Olive Green, Olive Oxide Brown and Payne's Grey. I don't like green unless I love it, and I was never so happy as to paint out those yellow leaves. I swear this is still wet.
(Images: Mark Chamberlain)
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So cool. But it makes me sad you'll have to paint over it when you leave...
How fabulously talented you are. What a pleasure to get a peek behind the scenes of an artist at work!
Love that ceiling, and it was interesting to hear your thoughts about shades of green.
Love your work - but I think a small child might find it pretty darned creepy!
How beautiful! And your discussion about getting the right green for the leaves was fascinating. It also made me laugh. Great artists (of all disciplines) have 1,000 considerations, never satisfied, as they perform their craft. Meanwhile, their admirers are utterly stunned by the artistry of the result.
Whitney Houston's funeral is on the TV right now, and Kevin Costner was just speaking about her performance in "The Bodyguard," and how insecure she was (in the most touching way) about her make-up and looks. Whitney Houston, as gorgeous as she was? Same as your leaves, Mr. Chamberlain: you evoke leaves with a few cunning, brilliant brush strokes, a fine artist, and yet, there are 1,000 nerve-wracking, I'm-not-satified, underlying considerations. Haha, you are a true artist.