REFRESHED

This piece titled "Refreshed", was my final project for my color theory class. The goal of this piece was to camouflage a found object with in a composition using what we had learned about color, while trying to mimic the work of an abstract artist. The artist who's work I was inspired by as I created this piece was Gerhard Richter. The piece also had to communicate a mood. The mood I choose was refreshed.

In the image above on the left you see my found object resting on a page from my process book where I cut out swatches from magazines to discover what colors were present within the object and what colors I should use to successfully make my object disappear. The image on the left is of an early thumbnail I created to help me make decisions about how to successfully achieve a refreshing mood. The mood of my piece was inspired by the sound of coke being poured over ice. The large bulky shapes in the foreground represent the clunking noise created by the falling ice. These shapes help to create the uneasy feeling that has to be present before you can feel refreshed. The long vertical lines mimic the sound of the coke leaving the bottle and the small dashed in the background depict the fizzing noise that occurs as the coke settles. These elements help to portray stress leaving your body as you begin to feel refreshed. I wanted to make sure that your eye was able to move through the piece easily, while also having a place to rest and feel refreshed. Although my final piece does not look exactly the same as this thumbnail, this sketch was a very important step in my process because it informed many decisions I made about my final composition. 

One of my favorite parts of this piece is how I was able to change the identity of this shade of blue-green. The first two images below show two sections from the painting that containing the shade of blue-green acting as if it is two very different colors. Then the next images two contain the same two sections with a swatch of the blue-green beside them proving that the color is the same in both locations.

Now that you know about the background and process work of this project, here is an image of the final product. I hope that you experience a refreshing mood when you find the object within the composition.

Refreshed                                                                 
Acrylic on Canvas                                                                 
2015