Friday, May 27, 2011

Complete or not complete?

I have done just about all I can do to the painting. Now it is time to study it and see if there is something that needs adjusting.

The colors in this painting were inspired by a news clipping of a painting that my cousin sent to me. He wrote across the top, "I thought this quite lovely. Thinking of you." The news clipping was from the Arab Times, dated 11/2/03. When I saw the painting, I saw it upside down. What stuck me was the colors. At that moment, I knew I had to use those colors in a painting. Even when I turned the image right side up, I didn't pay attention to what the painting was of or who the artist was. I actually liked the painting better upside down.

It wasn't until I found it in my file of papers recently that I read the blurb under the painting:
"L'Allee des Alyscamps," an 1888 oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, will be offered during Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Auction in New York on Nov 4. The painting is estimated to sell for 12-18 million. Auction powerhouses Sotheby's and Christie's are hoping a rising stock market and growing economy will bolster their balance sheets when fine art worth hundreds of millions of dollars hits the block in next week's semi-annual sales....

I certainly picked quite a painting to be inspired! But this was a reproduction on newsprint. For all I know, the paint colors are totally off from the original. I wonder where this painting is today and what it really looks like in person. It would be great to see it.

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