"Left Out" juried art show

Teapot and Pears
by Jane McElvany Coonce

In the Afternoon Cafe
by Jane McElvany Coonce

The Arlington Artists Alliance is sponsoring a juried art show for September.  Artists are allowed to enter 2 pieces for possible acceptance.  I enter "Teapot and Pears" and "In the Afternoon Cafe."  An artist always has their fingers crossed when they enter a juried show.

I am thrilled to say that both pieces were accepted!  I think only 5 artists got both pieces accepted.  There will be a reception at the Gallery Underground on Friday, Sept 5 from 5 to 8 pm.  I hope everyone can come.  If not, the show will hang for the month of September.  It comes down Sept 27.  

The gallery is located in Crystal City in Arlington.  

The theme "Left Out" is about the process that an artist goes through when producing a piece of art.  The artist might leave out or add something into the composition to make it work as a painting.  In both of my pieces, I left out specific colors. 

 In "Teapot and Pears", I limited myself to colors that were opposite the color wheel ( blue and orange).  The table cloth is blue and the background is peach.  There are a few other colors in there, but the majority of the painting is the blue/orange spectrum.  Colors opposite on the color wheel have a tendency to make the eye vibrate.  The color combination is a little jarring.  Yet the painting as a whole is a very soothing subject matter.  

In the painting "In the Afternoon Cafe" , I used a limited palette again.  This time I used purple and a yellow that are also opposite on the color wheel.  I think if I had painted this scene in the colors that were really there in real life, the painting wouldn't have been nearly as interesting.  So I wouldn't be tempted to use the colors of reality, I painted this scene from a black and white print out of this photograph and only used the two colors to complete the work.  By leaving out the real colors, I think I achieved a much more cohesive painting.