If you have been paying attention, then you know that Gerhard is working up a big-sized interpretation of this image for me.
And here it is... in progress.
It just makes your jaw go slack and wobble around the lower part of your skull for a while, doesn't it?
Meanwhile... (classic comic book segue), I came across this image at Shorpy that I also liked quite a bit, taken during a dust-bowl storm in the 1930s in the Land of Steinbeck. I think the threat in this image is spectacular.
In this case, it reminded me of the work of Oriana, whose seascapes, in particular, I have featured before. The tone of her work seemed to match this quite well.
She agrees, and likes the idea of basing a painting off of the dust storm image. However, and this is probably the mark of a good image, I think there are lots of choices to consider here, as does she, and neither of us has really settled on an answer in our own minds.
Car or no car? It's a little weird to have an old car painting, but 'shop it out, and the threat drops considerably.
Bring the darkness down, overall (try it in photoshop, it adds a lot to darken the whole thing)?
Dust bowl tones of black, white, grey and sepia (like this piece she did, in commemorating Hurriance Sandy, called "Breach")?
Or, just to be a bad guy, I also suggested that she could go with the sort of red-orange palate that Jeffrey Jones did in "Red Palm," one of the favorite paintings I own (see below).
2 comments:
I would say Nooooooooooooooooo to the warm Jeff Jones colours. Not foreboding enough. Seems more like a bomb went off or a purty sunset is happening…
The car/no car question is a good one. Tough to say.
The car gives the personal (to humanity) danger to it rather than just nature going wild and not being dangerous to anyone…
Or…no car but a distant scarecrow!
Ok, I need a coffee...
(keep us updated)
The thing I like about the Jones piece is exactly what you have said: nuclear holocaust or vivid sunset? I bought it for that reason. So (done right) I think it would play out that way.
That said, though, I prefer the black/grey/sepia/white in darker tones than "Breach."
Oriana does an interesting mix of these almost impressionistic land and seascapes, and still life painting that are almost plastic in their hyper-realism (http://orianakacicek.blogspot.com). All at once, the solution to the car problem was obvious: this painting needs to be a mash-up of an car done in her still life style set against the backdrop of one of her scape styles. So I suggested it.
Her reply: "The idea of using two different 'styles' in the same painting to create even more depth and complexity is great. Now I'm really looking forward to getting started on this one!"
Score.
(always grate/grate to hear from you)
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