What's in a Line? (Snake-thing)

Picture your garden hose coming alive, standing up, and then asking to join the barbeque party...that's pretty much the image depicted in this small painting. The painting is really quite abstract but a few details here and there make it look somewhat realistic. If I removed the eyeball, the trees, the lanterns and the grass texture,  you might think it was a pure abstract.


The snake-thing really looks eerie and out of place in this picture, which is good because that is what I was intending. One way I achieved this was through the use of complementary colours...or rather, the lack thereof. Most of the painting is purple-yellow complementary (a classic pairing), with a small component of blue-orange (look at the sky, and the little fleck of orange to the bottom right). However, the snake thing is green, and there is no red in this painting to complement it... by having half a complement (isn't that an oxymoron), the snake-thing looks especially out of place...I discovered this trick by accident, but once you know it, you can use it intentionally in future paintings.

7.5x10 cold press, 2011