The Philosophers

Acrylic on wood 12" x 12"

I am fascinated by large stone buldings especially with neo Greek and Roman columns. During my short stay at art school in the sixties one of the things I loved doing was drawing columns and learning about the different parts and styles. This is a simplified version of part of the facade of the British Museum in London. I have posted two paintings today; the first, 'The Philosophers' I finished this morning, the second painting I did in 2007. Obviously I used the same photo reference to help but this time I made some changes: I worked with a square shape to give tension; I angled the columns to give the feeling of power and strength and I pushed the ladies more into the corner to continue their philosophical conversation. I worked in acrylic which gives a different feel and allows me to build up colour layers. I always think stone has hidden depth of subtle colour within it.
A main difference with this rework was that I edited the photo to be just black and white and I made the colours up which was surprisingly scary. In fact because of that the columns are warm against a cool wall whereas in the painting below the reverse is true.
If anyone is interested in buying either of these please contact me.