Piano Duet

This is one of a series of four duets using differently sized rectangles as the bodies of the grand pianos, facing each other as they would be in a duet concert.

Each black and white key on the two keyboards was individually masked and painted, a very time consuming but necessary process for achieving this highly graphic effect. The colors within each of the rectangles, and the positions of those colors on the surface, were painted over many times until they achieved counter balance, the point at which none of the colors dominates any of the others.  It is hard to achieve this sort of color harmony when using yellow because of that color’s magnetic effect on the eye. Even a small dab of yellow on a large surface attracts inordinate attention; an equal value of yellow can usually dominate the visual field. It doesn’t here because of the unusual combination of teal and purple on the lower portion of the painting.

acrylic on canvas   16 x 20