Trepidation Oil on Canvas 22" x 28" 2004 (http://www.ebsqart.com/Artist/Curtis-Verdun/6988/Art-Portfolio/Trepidation/656405/)
Curtis Verdun is 'an abstract and portrait artist working out of his studio on Bayou Lafourche in South Louisiana. This areas rich culture and unique landscape has inspired the artist's work over the last 4 decades. One of the fondest memories during the artist's early life, Verdun recalls Christmas of '74. He was 12 years old then and one of the gifts his parents had given him was a Grumbacher oil painting set. Up to that point he had always been drawing and painting with whatever materials were available. Verdun is a self-taught artist, except for a one-week portrait workshop with Daniel Green in 1987. He feels that throughout his career he has learned much from reading about the great masters, both in technique and aesthetics. (Some of his favorite painters are the Abstract Expressionists.) To accelerate his learning, he has also copied their works, experimented with their various painting techniques and methods and prepared painting mediums by their recipes. He now even grinds some of his oil paints himself and also builds and prepares many of his own canvases.' (http://galerieverdun.com/art-cv/curtis-verdun-bio.htm) Verdun's artist statement says "Without the power of artistic expression, we would just do and say things as plain as computers or "androids". Nothing colorful would ever be expressed." (http://galerieverdun.com/art-cv/curtis-verdun-bio.htm) and this
is something he is very passionate about in his work.
When studying this painting, I notice many things such as the different amounts of tone in the piece as well as the texture that using oil paint has created on the canvas. The abstract piece and the oil marks make an odd shape, which I think resembles a wound. Trepidation (which is the name of the piece of work) is a feeling of fear or anxiety about something that may happen. (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=trepidation&rlz=....)
This 2D piece which has 3D elements from the layers of oil paint, is 22 x 28 inches which is roughly 71.12 x 55.88 cm. There are variations in light featured in this painting, in the form of different shades of the colour grey which have been used in the painting. In the top left hand corner and the bottom right hand corner of the painting, a dark grey has been used, while within the rest of the background, a combination of light and medium grey has been used. There has been more of the dark grey colour used in the centre of the piece to create what looks like the beginning of the 'wound' which I described earlier. On top of this is a bright red which has been layered on top. I think that the red represents blood which a person may produce after being cut or hurt. The texture of this painting looks like it has been created by the layers of oil paint being put on to the canvas by using a painting knife or a similar tool. As stated before in the introduction, Verdun often preps his own canvas' to use in his work and this may have been one of the pieces where he has done so. I think that by preparing his own canvas has created the slight 3D textured effect in the top right hand corner of the painting.
The immediate thing which catches the viewers eye is the bright red marks in the centre of the painting. This then leads the viewer's eye onto the dark grey, which eventually leads to the different gradients of the painting's background. I think this piece has been created for Verdun to experiment with abstract paintings as this was one of the first paintings that he produced. This painting is figment of his imagination which he longs to put into artwork and this may be another reason for the painting being produced.
This painting also encourages me to continue exploring layering and I have also began to think about using oil paint instead of acrylic, which is the paint that I have been working with, as I want to create the same texture and effects as Verdun does in his pieces. This may make my final pieces slightly more abstract however I need to experiment with this to see if I can achieve this effect.
No comments:
Post a Comment