Painting Process: Unity

I started this painting thinking I wanted to focus on light and shadow using indigo. I was actually painting over a painting of a cherry tree from last year. The red is Alizarian Crimson. I am still experimenting with this colour and I quite like the warm pink that Alizarian Crimson makes.

The image that I was working from is a photograph from last Spring. I chose to paint a large branch in the top right corner of the picture.

I liked the contrast of dark indigo and light pink. The indigo, used in the top right corner, gives me a feeling of a night sky. The sky at the bottom is brighter and gives contrast to the flowers.

As I painted, I realized that the whole composition was overwhelming. I had to erase the tree branch (indigo) and some of the flowers in the top area. By doing so, the focus of the painting turned to the larger flowers and the painting as a whole felt simpler yet stronger. The openness of the blossoms was, I felt, overpowered by the blue sky. To correct this I put a more neutral colour -gray.

After working on the details and the light, here is the final result...

Unity, Oil on Canvas, 30x24, 2009

Lastly, the title "Unity" was inspired by my recent reading of an essay on Buddhism by Ryotaro Shiba which discussed the history of different sects of Buddhism. From reading this, I got the impression (after all Buddhism is impossible to explain) of people uniting with nature=the universe= emptiness= nirvana... Without getting too complicated, this was on my mind while I was painting.