Bridging The Gap

I just completed this painting. My eyes are tired and my fingers are sore and I am a little brain drained, but am happy with the results. I wrote about the beginnings of this painting before. I showed you how I was testing colors for the figures. I decided since this was mostly a 'blue' painting that I wanted to keep the figures in the blue family - sort of. So I used purple and green.

I used Thalo Violet for one on the left, plus white and ultramarine. Since the left side has lots of texture, I wanted that figure to have texture too. The one on the right is on the side with a smoother texture, almost no brush strokes showing. So I kept the body smooth but added some texture to the head, to show a connection between the two. I used Utrecht Green, cad yellow, lemon yellow, a touch of ultramarine and white. I also added another 'bump out' on the green figure. Is it a hand coming up or another figure coming into the 'conversation'?

I wanted some balance with the additional colors so I added some of the violet to the curl in the upper right hand corner and some yellowish green in the texture on the lower left. Just a hint, but I like moving the colors around and moving the viewer's eye as well. I signed it in ultramarine.

I finalized the title to 'Bridging the Gap' I wanted a more positive spin on the subject matter. The dark blue area that separates the figures also separates the two sides of the painting. One side has heavy texture made with very thick paint. The other side has a smooth, soft feel. The gap that needs bridging may be any... the generation gap, a cultural gap, differences in age, race, class, values, religion, politics... We all have differences, some differences are greater than others. Some people are willing to work to narrow the gap some are not. The gaps are always in transit, getting larger or smaller. I want to show that we all should work to narrow them whenever possible.