Above The Clouds

By Tom Blood

Piece description from the artist

A man in a canoe, decked out in outdoor wear is literally above the clouds. The clouds have a pinkish-purplish look to them which seems at odds to the man's wooden canoe and overall outdoors-y look.
A quote by Andy Warhol seems pertinent to this particular painting of mine – "Don't think about making art. Just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding make even more art."

And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

This painting was a struggle, though with my initial concept, it seemed eminently simple. Instead of paddling away on a lake, I would have a man in a canoe doing the same in the clouds. Only when I painted the clouds, I realized the perspective for the canoeist wasn't quite right. He wasn't in the clouds, he was above them – and even then, the light source coming from the top left of the painting put even that in question. I contemplated creating a shadow of the canoe on the clouds below – but decided the light source made the angle questionable.
The juxtaposition of the relatively free flowing cloud formations against the rigidity of the canoe and its rower also seemed at odds.

The color palette was strange.
The angles are weird.
The whole concept is almost dreamlike.
Which is why I decided to leave it exactly as it is.