Planetscapes

I was at an opening of a former student, Theresa Musatto, at a small gallery in town that is no longer exhibiting,the Urarro. She is a grad of MICA's painting program and the work was wonderful. While talking with her about her work the conversation led to challenges of working in a non-representational vein, which I don't often dabble in, but after the conversation I went home with the intention of focusing on some non-representational exercises. These four works were the result. Inspired by images from planets from NASA, I just tried to divorce myself from subject matter as much as possible and just let color and texture drive the image.

The above was the first to be done and I was working with various violets and maroons and trying to suggest heat, but the cold heat of space. I was thinking in terms of a transit across the face of a sun. Not being able to completely escape some form of representation, I guess.

The second one was the least successful from an expectations standpoint, but I like the lower right hand corner portion and some other bits and pieces. Composition didn't quite pan out the way I had planned.

This was all about green and unfortunately a gas giant kept trying to force my hand and then while I wasn't looking that big Jovian orange spot shows up...what the H.

 This was the piece that I ended up being the most pleased with despite it being the most representational of the bunch really. It just had a nice feel to it, literally. The last of the project for now, but it is just the beginning of setting free the bears...maybe.