Mead Audio Tours The final image reveals the process of its own creation. To keep the dampened sheet from warping during painting, the artist mounted the paper on a hard work surface using the brown tape visible at the edges. Then, he made a graphite sketch (still visible in places, such as the columns) of the design—a Connecticut antique shop—before laying on relatively thin washes of watercolor in broad brushstrokes. He tested his extraordinary range of colors in the white space surrounding the main image, where he simplified objects into planes of light and shadow by contrasting bold color with the white paper. Kaep used the bright white of the paper to great advantage, scratching the paint away from some areas (such as on the blue donkey’s back near the middle of the picture) and simply leaving the sheet blank in others. The artist never meant for viewers to see the test strokes of color surrounding the main image; he marked the original framing margins in graphite. To see the image cropped as Kaep intended, use the mount below. Written by Josette Pratt, Class of 2009 |
