Today’s watercolor experiment:

Events of the past few days inspired today’s watercolor. I started with my new brush, a 3/4″ oval wash (which I love), and used Winsor red to draw a full, luscious contour. I filled it in with Winsor red and lighter colors to make it look like half of a three dimensional solid. For the other half of the figure, I used phthalo green to paint a more emaciated shape. Quinacridone nickel colored the rotten spots within the green; I also used it to suggest an eye and an eyebrow.

After glazing the left side with permanent mauve and the right side with Prussian blue and then with aureolin yellow, I manipulated the area outside the rotted mouth. I wanted it to look like sound waves. Finally, I drew a cadmium yellow pale outline around the red part of the shape.

Comment:

As in previous work on this blog (Janus, Introversion), the figure in today’s study represents two sides of one entity. An unspoiled, shiny-looking object connected to a rotted version of itself. The right side reminds me of The Scream by Edvard Munch, although I didn’t plan it that way.

Could these two figures be conjoined twins? Would the blood of the rotten side flow to the good side? Is it just the beginning of the rotting process of the entire fruit? Or is it the shiny expectation turned to rotten disappointment?