"Tango in La Boca"
Buenos Aires, Argentina
8" x 10" collage and mixed watermedia
Not much time last week for art. I am continuing to experiment. I love to dance and paint dancers. We saw many tango dancers in Buenos Aires in 2009, both in the San Telmo and La Boca neighborhoods. I selected this couple to paint. I decided I wanted the wall to look like it had been covered with posters that have been torn off or covered over with more fliers and posters.
I used Arches 300 pound cold press as it takes collage well. I free hand drew the dancers onto the support. I used a fashion magazine as my source of papers and covered the wall and the dancers' clothing, using mat medium as my adhesive. I gessoed over the wall, allowing some of the print to show through. I painted the dancers' clothing, as well as their skin and hair, which has no collage. Evaluation showed a lack of variation in values, so I painted over the gesso and paper on the red and grey sections with acrylic paint.
My critique group saw this piece when it was partly finished and liked what was happening. They encouraged me to try it in a larger format. That is an option. Right now I am creating some small paintings as I would like to send three paintings to a juried show my Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society is sponsoring. I may not have a prayer of being accepted, but I like the challenge. Charlotte Huntley is the juror.
7 comments:
great tension in the figures, Mary! I really want to see this picece in person!
This is really quite beautiful--great lines of black and white in the figures.
I think this is an awesome piece, Mary. I wish you luck in your art submissions too.
A painting bursting with controlled energy - I love it!
Mary, I love this piece. Red is the color of passion! You really captured the essence of the Tango with texture and words.
Hi Mary, just checking a few blogs to see what you all are doing.. and I LIKE what your doing..
as you know I love collage and paper playing , so this was very interesting to me.. It's different than our usual artwork, that's what makes it so much fun... this is particularly good. I think you achieved what you were looking for.. Nancy over at Art Adventures does a lot of this and is good at it.. She lives here in Florida , we've met in person ! yes ! hugs, BJ
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Hi Mary, OH! I do like the shapes and your color choices. Wonderful that you're experimenting with collage...one day I'll just have to try it! Good luck with the show.
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