Description
When I exhibited at Art Expo in New York City in the winter of 2009, after the setup, my mom and I went to the Nancy Hoffman Gallery to see if they had any of Joseph Raffael’s work on display. We walked up the stairs to the second floor of the gallery and at the top of the stairs was a gigantic painting of his – apple or cherry blossoms – about 5 feet high and 7 feet wide. We both – involuntarily – took a huge breath in – this is where we get the term breathtaking! It was just stunning – blue sky and white blossoms expanded so that the tiny blossoms were as big as a human head, intense yellow and orange around some of the edges of the blossoms. Incredible energy and life. Amazing – in the exact sense of the word. To think that this kind of art might be in some way in me seemed beyond reality.
The image that I used to create this painting was taken on a walk in Fairfax, not too far from home in the spring of 2008. The tree was in its prime bloom, no spent blossoms. It captured me in the same breath-taking way. This spring (2014) I got the inkling to paint it. When I projected this image and fully saw all the detail in it, I got that it needed to be as large as I could make it – 40″x40.” I started with what was the most challenging part – the blue sky. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep some consistency between the various areas of sky in color and intensity. Mixing three pigments: cobalt blue and manganese blue hue with a little ultramarine violet, I layered on a thick Life in Full Color blue. Yikes, it was too much! Too intense. It needed to be softer. So I lifted it off with a lot of water and paper towels. Painting it back on with a less intense wash was definitely better. Painting the rest – branches, leaves, blossoms and buds was a matter of stamina. Plenty of detail, lots of spaces and shapes and shading.
Somewhere along the way, I realized the blue was still too violet and cool. What to do to “warm” it up? I didn’t want to add yellow, that would make it greenish. A relatively new-to-me pigment, cobalt teal blue (think swimming pool blue) popped into my head. I took a small part of the blue and floated a layer. This did it. The cobalt particles tend to sit right on top and reflect light. The pale turquoise color was what was needed to balance the violet. Success!
The name came from another one-word song title. I’m so grateful for the bouyancy and joy in Pharrell Williams’ Happy song – I can listen to it over and over and over. I love the lyric: “if you feel like a room without a roof.” This is my room without a roof. Right now, as I’ve just finished the painting, “Happy” sounds like a goofy title for a painting of blossoms. As it has with other paintings’ names, this name will grow on it – and me. Happy is a fine idea to be echoing into world. Thank you to Joseph, the Fairfaxian who planted this tree and Pharrell!
March – June 2014
