Paintings By Li Mahalik
"From My Heart", Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas, 20x16
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I painted this a week ago and let it sit in my studio while pondering about it. It had a lot more red then and had no dark value, and it seemed too sweet. So, I revised it a bit today. Even though it's an abstract, a focal point or area still helps tying everything up. I would have loved all my abstracts to look good no matter how you place it. Not this one, though. It wants to look like a bunch of flowers, from my heart.
An update of my 4'x4' commissioned abstract painting: I'm still painting it in my mind, no kidding!
Please contact me if you have any comments, questions or have something in mind (yes, yours :) for a painting. Or visit my website, and my blog.
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*Did you know that the song "Starry Starry Night" by Don McLean was about Vincent van Gogh? The song, written and sang by McLean in 1971 when he was 26 years old, was also titled "Vincent". Together with "American Pie" the album made the #1 for four weeks that year. 1972. Where were you? Hope you enjoy the song and Vincent's work here as much as I do....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkvLq0TYiwI&feature=related
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This is an excerpt from a letter Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, when in Nuenen in June, 1884:
".... But to revert to that question of painting an evening sky, or a blonde woman with a drab colour like the grey of the pavement, if one considers it well, that question has a double meaning.
In the first place:
A dark colour may seem light, or rather give that effect; this is in fact more a question of tone. But then, as regards the real colour, a reddish-grey, hardly red at all, will appear more or less red according to the colours next to it.
And it is the same with blue and yellow.One has to put but a very little yellow into a colour to make it seem very yellow if one puts that colour in or next to a violet or a lilac tone.I remember how somebody tried to paint a red roof, on which the light was falling, by means of vermilion and chrome, etc.! That didn't work.
Jaap Maris did it in many a watercolour, by putting a very little highlight of red-ochre on a colour that was reddish. And it expressed the sunlight on the red roofs perfectly.... "
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Thank you so much for visiting my site.I hope your day is filled with pleasant supprises.
Warm Regards,
Li Hua
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