Cowboy Pink

"Cowboy Pink" - oil on canvas panel, 20 x 24.  Available here, at Artfinder and at Bluethumb.

“Why were you feeling low?’ ‘Why does anyone? It creeps up on you from time to time.” 
― Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers

Here at Malarkey Central, there is a lot of pink going on.

It began with a vague idea of things with pink balloons.  Which led to all sorts of shenanigans.  And then appeared the cowboys.  Isn't  there a color called cowboy pink?

Color can surprise us - pink can be sorrowful as well as syrupy.  It can be scary as well as soothing.  And because we don't expect it to be anything other than sweet, in these other contexts it opens something in the heart before we can begin to put up our defenses.  The ultimate in sneaky.

Cowboy Pink

​As it often happens with the art, this piece remained silent until we were reading The Sisters Brothers (for the second time), and I knew there was a thread connecting that couple of hit-men-for-hire in the old west with this contemplative cowboy.  

Sorrow creeps up on everyone from time to time.

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About the art: the AI bot loves pink.  I could spend hours just instructing it to make outlandish scenes in shades of pink.  This piece is inspired by a series of cowboy images, all dripping in pink.  Beginning with a canvas panel and applying layers of liquin-thinned pinks, alternating between rubber wedge and brush to create texture.  A rough figure sketch in the middle, keeping the hot spots of pink close to the cowboy and letting it "cool" toward the edges.  Alternating layers of darks and lights to create shadows and folds in the clothing.  Creating "flowers" with loose brush strokes and resisting the urge to perfect them. A final touch of the lightest lights with a palette knife.