Mister Black Dances with the Cobalt Violet Muses

Mister Black & Pink Buds with Purple Pillow
21.75 x 24"
oil on wood

Well I didn't crack anything wide open with this painting, but I feel I am certainly opening up my application of paint. And a bit of Fauvism seems to be trying to infiltrate my canvas. Harry is right, they can really take over things. They seem to live in the auras of all things living and not. They flash in & out of sight like summer night fireflies. And he is also right when he says they are always right. I for one am enjoying listening to them and I like the song they are playing which is "Cobalt Violet Light".

I had plans to do the pillow more like one of the yellow tablecloth paintings, however the dark purpley reds of the under-painting were suggesting something else. Maybe it is the influence of Bonnard that has me so enamored with the way outside light plays on inside objects like long cobalt violet fingers on creamy white piano keys. And right before the sun goes down the light draws a transparent curtain of cobalt violet over my bedroom and I just know some supernatural being will pop in at any minute, or maybe just Mary Poppins. I don't have those catholic spooks haunting me like Harry does.

Harry left yesterday to work at an AP Reading in Louisville for a week. I was worried about doing this painting without his head popping into my studio with potent questions. And thanks to Harry's teasing about the dead cat painting, I was really paranoid that Mister Black would seem dead. I wanted to paint Mr. B relaxed. He gets boneless when he really relaxes. And on this particular day he was melting into that pillow like a good Alexander student. Boneless, I tell you. I shifted the position of Mr. B's head a bit and he didn't look quite so carcassy. His eyes were closed, so there was nothing but his silhouette to do the communicating.

And yeah, did you notice the last painting on the wall? Not trompe-l'oeil exactly. And the scraffito is so fun. Harry, quit battling with your muses, and ask them to dance with you!

@Etsy!