Super Saturated

Have you had that dream so vivid that upon waking up, you are overcome with a deep sadness for being “back” in such a gray world.

Do you remember how blue and opaque the sky was? Didn't you think it odd that green was crayon-green and all the reds seem to be flaming and bursting sparks of orange towards your face?

I always stare out in my dreams with my mouth wide open. When the rare occasion of an ultra saturated colored dream does happen, I will myself with all my might to break free from the conveyor belt that keeps me within a predetermined track as I am led through this freshly painted world my mind had conjured up.

I believe that if ever I break free and was made able to roam my colored dreams, I will find myself against a white screen, palming an illusion I have projected like a movie. Something so vibrant cannot possibly exist in the real world.

When I started painting Happiness, I was tempted to execute it as realistically as I could. But as the work progressed, I couldn't hold back on using pure colors. I was so enamoured by what I started, I had to use magenta to allow the central figure to kick through the frame. Before I know it, I was painting what looked like something from one of my dreams. I was daubing pure white to highlight my clouds, dropping in yellow amid burnt umber, painting white adjacent earth colors and different greens.

There's a downside to all this liberalism. I once showed the unfinished work to the partner of a friend and she said the painting looked nice. It looked like cartoons, according to her. That caught me off guard, honestly. But yes, I do see her point. After that, I pulled back a tad on the saturation. Besides, I'm working on the face now and have to slow down. The toughest challenge for me now is to create a likeness. The second toughest is how to wipe that smirk off the woman's face! I try not get too excited when working with the woman's expression. The gestures can become really tricky. A misplaced highlight can turn a smile into suppressed grief.

The painting should be done in a few more weeks. I still have to apply a warming layer to the face and arms of the central figure, as well as reflect the warm earth tones off her white pants. I still have to apply some hair partly over the face to shrink it. I've given up in trying to find a “remedyo” to the uneasy crop on the central figure's legs. You see, when I arranged everything on the canvas, I still had room for sneakers. But as I painted in the figure, I was constrained to lengthen the legs to prevent the figure from looking stunted.

The final touch will be grass blades sticking out at the bottom of the frame to suggest a layering of close foreground elements.

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