Sidewalk Sidewalk

Long time no see! I just finished a big move, living in the west part of Montreal now near the campus. In the spirit of moving, I painted this one called Sidewalk Sidewalk because there is a sidewalk with sidewalks walking on it. The rest of the composition is an organic doodleism design flowing back and forth. The change from winter to spring is also suggested by the warm colours and yellow sunlight poking out here and there.

I used to paint every square inch of the paper- even backgrounds always had colour washes or details. I started consciously using blank space (no paint) in the background starting with the 2010 solution (posted May 2012), or perhaps even earlier with Higher Ground (posted July 2008) where I explained the influence of Chinese art in my work. The top left portion of 'Sidewalk Sidewalk' has no colour in the background... the blue tint is just from the photograph. The nice thing about the white background is that the objects on top really stand out. In the middle under the pyramids, and the sidewalk on the ground in front are also white or near-white, which helps create this sensation of bright light even though the skyline suggests night.

11x15 cold press. March 2014