Shrine Painting 2

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

The great thing about painting a shrine is that shrines have a lot of meaning to those who set them up and so there is usually a tremendous amount of care given to the selection of materials and objects.  In the case of this shrine the background fabric was exquisite and created a very wonderful contrast to the small statue in terms of color and decorative elements. I decided in this painting to zoom in on the Buddha which had some interesting effects.  Since the statue was so small zooming in really effected the handling of the background details.  What happens with the brush marks when painting on a small panel is similar to what happens with a photograph when the background blurs due to depth of field settings.  Little spots of reflected light become little blobs or bubbles of color.  I enjoyed trying to capture the decorative elements on the background fabric which had little sparkly "mirrors" sewn onto it as well as elaborate embroidered patterns and color shifts.  I could have used a smaller brush but I feel the brush can only be scaled so much with the size of the painting surface before it is categorized as a miniature and conveys a completely different feeling (I will be posting a full essay on this idea during the next few weeks on my writing blog Rag & Koan).