The Color of CommunitySize: 2ft x 2ft
Medium: Acrylic on canvas Date: July 2019 Exhibition Text: With this painting I conveyed the concept of community being a diverse mix of people from all different kinds of background and stories. My purpose of this painting was to capture the beauty of community and the different colors that the many people bring into life, following the inspiration of Laurie Justus Pace. |
Inspiration
Mid Summer Night's Gathering by Laurie Justus Pace
Landing in the Gutter by Laurie Justus Pace
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Following Laurie Justus Pace's modern impressionism paintings, I was inspired by the very colorful pieces of hers, especially the ones that included multiple people. It was almost exactly what I had in mind, and it perfectly conveyed my idea, specifically her paintings "Mid Summer Night's Gathering" and "Landing in the Gutter". In these paintings, she sets a mood of people enjoying each other, as they are positioned leaning towards one another as if they were embracing each other. This painting almost seems as if it were based off of a photograph of friends, and that is something that I admired so much about these pieces. Every person in it consists of a different paint pattern and different colors which makes the painting so vibrant and colorful while giving each person their own kind of identity without using faces or clothes, which is exactly what I wanted for my painting.
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Planning Sketches
When planning for the individual bodies, I played with the idea of each body having its own unique patterns, aside from colors. one of the patterns I suggested was a geometric pattern/shape, however I did not go through with these ideas as I just wanted to have separate mixes of colors for each person and body.
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Aside from the geometric patterns, I also considered the idea of one or two people having white spaces in between the colors, making it seems as if the colors were wrapping around the person. Personally, this was my favored pattern over the geometric, as it was more subtle and less distracting.
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My main planning sketch was the full concept one, where I played with the proportions, positions and colors. Unfortunately the colors cannot be seen, however this is the planning sketch that I based my painting off of as it does not seem as if the group of people are random people in any community, they seem as if they are friends. This planning sketch gives off the good energy that I loved so much about Pace's work, which is why I decided to work off of this one.
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Process
Firstly, I drew on the heads and the center body in order to have a sense of proportion to the painting. I was hesitant to outline the entire bodies because I was not sure if the paint that I was applying later on would completely cover the pencil marks. I also did not want to draw the bodies reaching all the way down to the bottom the canvas, I wanted them to fade away before the bottom.
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Secondly, I painted on the blended background. I began with the color yellow as it is the easiest color to paint over, and blended the other colors with each other. I wanted to make sure that the background was not just compiled of straight lines, so I spread out each color on the canvas and painted them in small areas. I also made sure not to paint in the areas that I would be painting the bodies, as I would only waste the paint for the background.
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The most time consuming part of the process was painting the inside of the bodies. I had to outline the patterns in pencil first, then mix the correct colors, then use multiple sized brushes to fill in the bodies. I would paint the darkest colors first, however if I were to change this process I would paint the darkest colors last, as it was very difficult to paint the lighter colors over the darker colors without them showing from underneath.
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The final part of the process was filling in the spaces in between each body. This part was a bit difficult as I only had two remaining colors from the background; purple and orange. So I had to fill in the empty spaces with those two colors blending with their nearby colors as well, and luckily it turned out well.
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Experimentation
When creating the background, I experimented with the orange. I originally painted a darker orange than I had liked, and I especially didn't like the way it stood out more than the lighter, pastel colors. This photo is of the original orange that I had used before painting over it with a lighter orange.
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Once again, I struggled with the orange shading. Since it would be a part of the bodies themselves, I found it more important as they are meant to stand out form the background. It took me many tries and experiments to find a shade of orange that was bright, neon and vibrant enough.
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Reflection
I am pleased with this project because it took me a long time to find a concept that I really wanted to dedicate myself and my efforts to for a painting, and when I finally did I felt very passionate about it. I got even more excited once I had found an artist who created artwork that looked very similar to what I wanted to create. The hardest part of this project was figuring out the subject. I also struggled with finding the right colors for the background as they were much lighter than the colors I had used for the bodies. I found myself adding more white paint to the mixture than I thought I would. I do think that the most enjoyable part of this project was being able to portray my appreciation for something that is often overlooked or taken for granted. I often find myself in very diverse communities and groups and I find it interesting that people from very different backgrounds and "colors" can end up in the same place.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I wanted to portray the same mood as Laurie Justus Pace and I feel she created exactly what I wanted to create as well, but with a different purpose. I wanted to recreate her paintings because I had fun with the concept of having multiple meanings for the same image concept.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The information on both pieces were unbiased and stated only facts about the physical piece itself with only little background information.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I came to the conclusion that Pace had also felt the beauty of community and gathering through her pieces as they both include groups of people and vibrant colors.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was expressing appreciation to diversity in a simple, yet meaningful way.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made included Pace feeling a form of appreciation such as mine that inspired her to make these pieces in the first place.
I wanted to portray the same mood as Laurie Justus Pace and I feel she created exactly what I wanted to create as well, but with a different purpose. I wanted to recreate her paintings because I had fun with the concept of having multiple meanings for the same image concept.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The information on both pieces were unbiased and stated only facts about the physical piece itself with only little background information.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I came to the conclusion that Pace had also felt the beauty of community and gathering through her pieces as they both include groups of people and vibrant colors.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was expressing appreciation to diversity in a simple, yet meaningful way.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made included Pace feeling a form of appreciation such as mine that inspired her to make these pieces in the first place.
Bibliography
“Mid Summer Night's Gathering, Contemporary Good People Series Abstract Painting by Texas Artist Laurie Pace by Artist Laurie Justus Pace, on DailyPainters.com.” Daily Painters Gallery, www.dailypainters.com/paintings/260412/Mid-Summer-Night-s-Gathering-Contemporary-Good-People-Series-Abstract-Painting-by-Texas-Artist-Lauri/Laurie-Justus-Pace/.
Pace, Laurie. “Landing in the Gutter . . .” Laurie Justus Pace: Contemporary Horse Paintings, Equine Art, Abstract Horse Paintings, Laurie Justus Pace: Contemporary Horse Paintings, Equine Art, Abstract Horse Paintings, 21 July 2018, ellepace.com/the-journal/2018/7/21/landing-in-the-gutter-.
Pace, Laurie. “Landing in the Gutter . . .” Laurie Justus Pace: Contemporary Horse Paintings, Equine Art, Abstract Horse Paintings, Laurie Justus Pace: Contemporary Horse Paintings, Equine Art, Abstract Horse Paintings, 21 July 2018, ellepace.com/the-journal/2018/7/21/landing-in-the-gutter-.