Color and apples

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Thanks Sharon, he was called pretty recently and didn't much like that - handsome, I'm sure, is better.

Valerie, boy those are good questions and the kind I like to answer. I'll ramble on here a bit. Yes, he did juggle them so I could observe. It's hard to juggle long or well sitting down (one more tension suggestion). The robe was meant to aid in the timeless nature of the pose. The detail of the gold was really time consuming. I drew it very carefully (its uniform and repeats); it's also symmetrical, so drawing was a killer. Then I painted it pretty thickly on the bright spots so it would sparkle at least in person. The rocks were sister rocks from my yard that were very aged (exposed and had a patina) I rolled them around until I found the surfaces that best served this pose. I try make everything serve the face and the figure -reate reaction or serve as a foil.

I determined where the apples would be and then built dowels the right length and placed them on the dowels so the light would fall corectly upon each. I rotated them to avoid redundancies.

Leaving a painting open for interpretation is fun and tricky. There must be enough in the work to gently nudge viewers in a direction yet not too much. Making something somewhat timeless is another real challenge.

I've painted a lot of skies and made lots of field sketches-I just drew from those years of experience. I painted the sky at least three times. It's very thick and chewy and the apples are thinly painted-so that which is nearest is thinnest and that which recedes the most is thickest; rather the opposite of what would seem normal, yet this again adds to the contradictions and tension (I hope).