Last week Anabel and I got to work at the the mural site, Bennet Cancer Center at Stamford Hospital. She is my assistant as well as my child and an artist in her own right, and it is such a pleasure to work with her.
We projected the drawings that I'd developed in my studio onto the walls. The width of the corridor didn't allow us to get far back enough to adequately enlarge the images, so we split the photos and put them up a section at a time. We used a printout of the flower to gauge size and placement, shifting and adjusting as we went.
The color I am using to draw here, Maganese Blue, is also the first color I pick up when I begin to paint into a charcoal drawing. I use it's cool brightness to put in shadows and emphasize marks. This color pops in a way that a black outline cannot, and I can weave it into the subsequent image without breaking the mood, reinforcing the idea that it is more supporting structure than outline.
Alice Neel is one of my favorite painters, and I think it was in her work that I first saw electric blue describing a form. Her seemingly casual lines offer a wealth of information, and are punctuated by blank canvas, which I read as a thrilling invitation to the viewer to take part in constructing the image.
Ed Sun, oil on canvas, Alice Neel
