Times Like These

Bright colours

This brightly coloured original art work is a must for a space that’s crying out for some kind of celebration of life. It’s a very bright and lively abstract with a relatively simple colour palette but using a complex way of blending them together.

I’ve opposed colours so that I have a little bit of each on both sides of the canvas. I chose not to put larger blocks of colour in one place as this would have made it difficult to get those interesting ‘bar’ shapes that make up the fabric of the painting.

Big shapes

This painting can’t exist as a bold and confident piece without the use of strong shapes. The long applications really are the highlight here. However, their inclusion only tells half the story.

It’s the fact I have arranged them in a ‘V’ shape that really catches your attention. I really don’t think I would have got such a statement if I’d placed them neatly next to each other. Additionally it also works because of the white-space between a few selected blocks. It’s important for a stark composition like this to have a little breathing room.

Movement and flow

There are many small details that reveal themselves as you begin to spend a little time with the painting. One of which is the minute threading of gold into a number of the colours – very nice; so too is the way the colour blocks disappear off round the edges of the canvas.

I wanted to get a feeling of directional movement too, so being careful to pull the colours in a particular direction was crucial. I deliberately wanted a start and end point on this one rather than letting your eye meander at its own leisure. It’s a terrible pun but sometimes it really is wise to go with the flow (sorry – I did warn you!).

Living with the painting

Okay, so you’re going to need to like pink and blue I reckon – they’re the two colours I notice the most. However, if you’re desperately finding a way to make it fit into a colour scheme, and you’re worried about that then don’t be – you can happily pick on the more primary tones (like red and dark blue) to be your foundation for adding and matching colours.

That way the pink and blue become the accents and the ones that will really stand out. If it were me I wouldn’t try to match the pink or blue.

Fortunately the addition of gold brings some much needed warmth to the painting whilst the black is the bit that grounds everything – it’s one reason why it features at the base of the V shapes (in its darkest version).

I prefer this hung in portrait with the V shapes pointing upwards. It makes me feel happy and motivated. The combinations of shape and colour leave me energized and uplifted. And personally I’d hang it in a hallway if I could, but that’s just my opinion!