The Spark: Artfully Arranged

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These 19th-century, wooden photo development frames that I found at a flea market have worked their way into a number of my paintings. I find them endlessly useful in supporting the narrative and design in my symbolic still lifes. I love the see-through quality that turns them into portals.

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Typically, my compositions evolve in my mind, but for The Pink Lady Levitates, I started by making a quick line sketch with a few notes. You can see a number of changes between the sketch and final pastel. Because the “levitating” apple was positioned almost dead center in the composition, I decided to broaden the apple theme and create balance with more visual weight on the left.

The Pink Lady Levitates (pastel on paper, 20×20)

The quick sketch for The Pink Lady Levitates wasn’t meant to be a rigid map, but rather an aid for working through some of the artist’s conceptual intentions for the piece.

Not wanting to throw out the idea of the vase from the sketch, I worked in a smaller version on the right and included the rosebuds to bring a touch of the red to the right side of the composition.

Finally, I introduced the blue background paper to add color contrast with the reds, create more interesting negative spaces and reinforce the see-through nature of the antique photographic frames.