Thursday, January 29, 2009

"While We Sleep"

In this painting I have attempted to create the fantasy of what occurs while we sleep. Creating a sense of visual balance was one of the issues that concerned me. The two large rabbits constitute a major focal area due to their size and their position. To encourage "my audience" to move to other areas of the painting, I incorporated a jumping rabbit and a stream. I encouraged the viewer to gaze upward with the addition of the rabbit jumping from left to right over the stream(this helps move the viewers eye across the surface). I also highlighted the rabbit with a circular motif. While the stream serves as a tool to lead the viewers eye from the back of the composition forward, it also leads us to the jumping rabbit and movement to the back of the composition. In many of my paintings I use a road or a stream as a tool to carry the viewers eye through the piece. It is like an invitation to the viewer to step into our painting. As I use to tell my students- once you have invited them in you probably should entertain them.

I hope you are entertained. Be happy.