Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Birdman


This was a painting done in 2000 when I was living in a basement apartment in London, Ontario. The scene depicts an imaginary city (on a far off planet?) with an evening dancing party on a terrace. Four people dance happily while the birdman, off to the left watches them. The dancer in the foreground has a free right hand. Does he want to join them?

From a design perspective this painting was very lucky. I sat down to a blank piece of mat-board and this picture seemed to come out of the paintbrush with a life of it's own (this rarely happens with success!). In addition to luck, I used pictures from a Stratford festival booklet to get some inspiration for the characters. The result is a lively composition with an earthy coloured scheme. After the paint dried, outlines were applied with Chinese black ink. 

 

Birdman, mixed media 14 x 20"matting board, 2000 (No. 0037)

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