I thought I should try doing some black and white stuff. It’s kind of nice to limit the palette. I’m still mining Picasso, as ever.
Meantime we’re watching – rather aptly – an old black and white movie, The Primrose Path,
Ginger Rogers is Ellie May, and Joel McCrea is Ed. Ellie May, a young innocent tomboy, is daughter to two generations of hooker. She meets Ed, falls in love, and gets married. But her family troubles follow, and blight things.
Ed abandons Ellie May. Ellie May’s alcoholic father, Homer, accidentally shoots Mamie, his wife/Ellie May’s mother. Ellie May seems doomed to follow the path of her female forbears…
Fortunately things turn out for the good, ultimately. I do like a nice old fashioned happy ending.
BACK TO ART…
I have to confess that I really love these two pieces. Are they just studies? Or are they something in their own right? I’ve no idea! And that’s fine.
I also feel that there’s lots of mileage in this direction. So I hope to keep producing stuff in this vein. And I hope I can transfer such ideas to larger format ‘proper’ paintings.
We shall see…