Inspired by Cherry Blossom and DC architecture

Seeing cherry blossom in DC was a joyful experience.  Additionally visiting museums and art collections was utterly satisfying.  This was my first visit to Philip's collection and was happy to see some of the work by my favorite artists:  Stuart Davis, Nicolas De Stael, George Braque, Gustav Klimt, Mardsen Hartley and many others.  I was also pleasantly inspired by the architecture near Philip's collection in Dupont Circle.

This drawing was composed using combination of architectures from a photo taken in DC and a site in Northampton.  I still enjoy painting on site, therefore this drawing will be evolving through observation at different times. However, I am hoping to keep some of the reminiscence of inspiration from DC.  This is also a beginning of a new chapter to be comfortable using alternative resources instead of always relying on observation on site.

While painting this work, for inspirations I have kept a close eye on two paintings I saw in the Philip's collection: Blue Cafe by Stuart Davis and Composition by Nicolas de Stael.  Although I have seen the reproduction of these paintings, it is amazing to see it in person.   As flat as the Blue Cafe appears in reproduction, the paint is thick and there are surprising textures in various places.  The abstract architectural planes, personalized colors, beautiful crisp lines and curves always captured my attention in Davis's paintings.  The musical note in the sky is a brilliant mark in my mind; without it the sky will look void and detached from the rest of the planes.  Similarly, in de Stael's Composition, I enjoy the blocks made of subtle variation of shades of gray next to the richer darker colors.  Although his paintings can be non-representational, there is an illusion of light and space.

Stuart Davis's work are my inspiration in composing architectural planes to divide space and in using personalized colors. Nicolas De Stael's work gives me inspiration for rich neutral colors.  I also enjoy looking at the different ways of creating lines by these artists.  Davis's work have crisp lines by painting the line.  However, Stael's line are implicitly made by laying down various shapes and colors on the top of one another.