Life in the Village

The roof lines of Portsmouth are the inspiration for this painting. I have been working with the abstract shapes and repositioning actual geometry of the buildings along the Piscataqua River to build a new kind of reality. I like the feeling of Portsmouth being more like a village than a city and that is what I am playing with in this work. A very warm toned underpainting creates the foundation for adding layers of paint that are scraped away revealing some of the red tone. This process allows me to layer color until I find a balance throughout the piece that suits me. The raised linear marks are made by painting fluid acrylic on the first layer, allowing it to dry which creates a raised surface which I then add highlights by using a palette knife.