Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 27, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 27, 2025.  I call this the "Scarlet letter project" because it was painted  for a special event on March 30th at the Salem Athenaeum held to celebrate 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I designed this painting based on a quotation from the novel, shown below.* The prison bars serve as the background for the lines from the novel.  And in my painting,  the wild rose bush that is mentioned in the quotation shows itself  through the prison window, with the red roses on its long branches suggesting the letter A in red: the Scarlet Letter of the novel. 

On  Mar 27, 2025, I thought my painting was done.  I had made a lot of very small changes, behavior that I now take as a signal that I am almost finished with a painting.  So I signed it and installed a wire on the back, in prepration for delivering it to the Salem Athenaeum the next day.  And no, I still hadn't realized there was an error in the text.  I knew I would keep fiddling with the painting until I actually turned it in, like I always do.  And in this case, that turned out to be a very good thing. To be continued. . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 26, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 26, 2025.  I decided to paint this for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  So I based this painting on a quotation from the novel, shown below.* I decided to use the prison bars as the background for the text. The wild rose bush, mentioned in the quotation, is visible through the prison window, red roses on its long branches position to suggest the letter A in red: the Scarlet Letter of the novel. 

On March 25th and 26th, I was working close to the deadline so started to refine the image.  I continued to work on the prison bars, concentrating on making the lighting consistent (using nearby window blinds as a guide!).  I also worked on brightening the roses.  And still didn't realize there was an error in the text.  To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 25, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 25, 2025.  This painting is for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum, marking the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  This painting began with a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  I used prison bars as the background for the text. The wild rose bush, mentioned in the quotation, in my painting is visible through the prison window, with its long branches positioned to form the scarlet letter A which is central to the novel. 

On Mar 25, having resolved the issue of the color for the window frame, I knew I had the final composition, so began to refine the details. I got my T-square out again and began to straighten the lines of the prison bars and the window frame.  At this point, I still hadn't noticed any problem with the text. To be continued. . .  

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 24, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 24, 2025.  This painting is for a special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the 175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I based this painting on a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  I used the prison bars as the background for the text. The quotation mentions a wild rose bush, which in my painting can be seen through the prison window, its long branches positioned to form the scarlet letter A which is central to the novel. 

On Mar 24, after looking at my painting for a couple of days, I decided to change the color of the window sill from dark brown to a lighter gray, close to the color of the bars. So I quickly painted in the change (on the front of the canvas and around the sides as well.) Once that was done, I was happier.  I think the change made for a more coherent composition, with tension between two components (inside and outside) rather than three (the window frame). The added benefit is that the lower contrast with the sky will make any little errors in the edges less distracting. And no, I still hadn't realized there was an error in the text. . . To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 21, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 21, 2025.  This painting is for the special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the  175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  This painting is based a quotation from the novel, seen below.*  My painting uses prison bars to provide a background for the  text of the quotation. The wild rose bush of the quotation appears through the prison window, with its long branches positioned to suggest the scarlet letter A which is so important in the novel. 

On Mar 21, 2025, I added a layer of gray to the brown window frame, and then began I began straightening the lines of the window.  At this point, I thought I was close to finishing this.  But I was wrong.  I also thought the text was correct.  Turns out I was wrong about that, too.  To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 20, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 20, 2025.  This is for an upcoming special event at the Salem Athenaeum to mark the  175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter."  I based my painting on a quotation from the novel, seen below.* In my painting, I used prison bars as the background for the  text of the quotation.  The wild rose bush mentioned in the text is seen through the prison window.  I know that each year the wild rose bush in my yard makes long branches (called runners), hence the long branches on the rose bush in my painting, positioned to suggest the letter A, so important in the novel. Ane though the wild roses I have seen are usually white, and rarely even pale pink, I decided to make this roses red so that the branches form a scarlet letter.  

On Mar 20, I worked on the window frame (and edge of canvas), adding a layer of brown over the purple.  My idea was to follow this with a layer of dark gray to achieve a color close to black. But as you will soon see,  I eventually changed my mind about that. Meanwhile, I worked a bit on the blue background and started cleaning up some of the lines. To be continued. . . .

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."  

 

Prison Bars and Roses (Scarlet Letter project), painting as of Mar 19, 2025

Here is my painting as of Mar 19, 2025.  I am painting this for a special event next week at the Salem Athenaem, held to commemorate the  175th anniversary of Nathanial Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter." At least 10 paintings will be on display for the occasion.  My painting is based a quotation from the novel, seen below.* In my painting, prison bars serve as background for the text, and the wild rose bush (also mentioned in the quotation) is seen through the prison window.  The long branches of the rose bush suggest the scarlet letter A which is so important in the novel.  On March 19th, I started working on the sides of the window, and added this purple.  But don't panic:: this was not intended as the final color.  My idea was to use a very dark gray, almost black, for the window frame.  I decided to build the color in layers, rather than mix it, starting with a layer of purple, to be followed with a layer of brown, and then paine's gray.  I was planning to use the same dark grey on the sides of the canvas (to seal it), so also extended the purple on the sides of the canvas.  In fact, I ended up changing my mind about the dark windowsill, more on that later, but meanwhile here is the painting with a purple border.

*Here is the quotation from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter::

"But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold was a wild rose bush covered, this month of June, with its delicate gems which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom in token that the deep heart of Nature would pity and be kind to him."