Redbud Special

Redbud Special

Nancy Cupp

20 x 16 inches

Acrylic paint on eucaboard

© Nancy Cupp.  All rights reserved.

 

On April 8, 2012, Easter afternoon, I was reading on Facebook and came across a post by a local art gallery announcing that April 8 and 9, were the last days to enter the Findlay Area Call for Artists Jules Olitski Challenge at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. This was the first time I heard about this. We could enter up to three works, but one of them had to be inspired by an artist I never heard of.

With family plans on Easter, there was no time to try to paint something that day. On Monday I wondered if I should even try painting something that quickly. I am more of a traditional style artist and do not do many paintings in an abstract style, nor had I ever heard of Jules Olitski. So this really was a challenge for me on many levels. About 11 AM, I decided to at least give it a try and painted this very quickly, got it framed, and turned in that evening just in the nick of time.

I read that Olitski experimented with color and was inspired by nature. Me too! I love vivid, brilliant colors and nature. On Saturday, I was out at the park taking pictures of the beautiful spring trees and was mesmerized by a beautiful redbud tree. I decided to use the redbud tree for inspiration and try to limit my painting to the study of color only, without any apparent lines created by drawing in tree trunks or branches, or other objects in nature. I limited it just to color itself. I let splashes of color create everything in the painting and let the viewer create their own shapes from their imagination and whatever was created by the brush strokes.

I call it “Redbud Special” because of the beautiful redbud tree I had seen at the park and how gorgeous her colors were. The blue sky behind the tree that I saw was the backdrop for all the pinks I saw on the tree. I used metallic and iridescent acrylic paints to create a more vivid effect. I absolutely love delicious color, which affects the way I paint, even in my more traditional works. I hope you enjoy my painting and give all the pink trees a big hug from me for making our lives more colorful.

Though I do not normally paint in this style, passing this challenge got me into the Toledo Museum of Art, Findlay Area Artists Exhibition at the Community Gallery, May 4-July 19, 2012. I exhibited three works of art; Wisdom, Evangel Of Hope, and Redbud Special.

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