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."
No comments:
Post a Comment