Monday, September 16, 2013

Blue Cosmodrome


Once upon a time, I did work like this. These fantasy buildings are actually inspired by real architecture, Hindu temples in the city of Bhubaneswar, India. I painted them as if they were made out of some exotic crystalline material instead of carved stone. The background is airbrushed and I was able to paint the buildings so that they faded in from the bottom of the picture. The main color is cobalt blue. Everybody thinks that orange is my favorite color but a close second is this celestial cobalt blue which is very difficult to paint with as a pigment. Nowadays I would do this digitally in Photoshop but some painterly purists would not like it. I sold the original to one of my best collectors for a fairly good sum. Once upon a time, I sold work like this. The original title was "Bhubaneswar" but I re-named it "Blue Cosmodrome," to emphasize that something science-fictional was going on.

"Blue Cosmodrome" is acrylic on illustration board, 7" x 10", November 1998.

1 comment:

Mike (Altus) said...

Wow. There's so many things I love about this piece. The palette to start (I'm a lover of cobalt blue as well), and the hazy nature due to your painting method. What I love most is the horizontal highlights that make up the buildings, and how they gleam in the sunlight.