The Juggler

Here is painting dating back to when I really began painting in the surrealism style after a long period of painting landscapes and florals. The story behind this painting is how one can go through emotionally difficult things, and no matter how hard they are we keep going, and also keep trying. In the painting, the audience looks on as a clown with a porcelain (glass) head is juggling hammers. On the stage lies shattered remains from past performances, and behind the curtain is a shelf of new glass heads. There is also a platform with soft bean-bags. (but the clown thinks that juggling hammers is way more impressive?) The juggler contains rich, luminous reds that were achieved through optical mixing techniques. To do this, the entire work was first done using only blue paint, and when that dried, several layers of reds were applied on top. Now when one looks at the painting, the reflected light has to pass through both layers of paint which optically mixes to become a shimmering, luminous magenta. Had the red and blue been mixed on the palette, it would instead produce a dull, flat looking purple. 

The Juggler, watercolour 11 x 14" hot press, 2001 (No. 1334)