Harlequin

24 in x 24 in,

10/24

There are no straight lines in this painting, except of course for the outer edges of the square canvas. The grid was laid down entirely using geometric compasses, aligning the points in the center and drawing arcs from regular intervals on the edges. As the grid was coming together, I saw concentric shapes emerging from the center, rather like the petals of a daisy. It took me a while to settle on a color theme for the painting, being naturally drawn to white petals and a yellow center, but I kept coming back to a vision of light pinks and blues in an ombre'd manner (so with purple and magenta in between). The background mimicked that theme, but I made the colors dark so that the petals of the shape would stand out. Rather than straight darker versions of each of the pastel colors, I muted them with browns, throwing in transparent paints and some impasto along the way. I added the little iridescent white dots to the tips of each of the "petals" to match the center disc which I laid down in various whites. My daughter commented that it reminded her of a jester's hat, so I decided to call it "Harlequin" in honor of the classic jester's costume in the commedia dell'arte, an early form of professional theatre from Italy.