Limes Lemons and Yellow Bird

I have long admired the short lived style of Fauvism

which includes work by

Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Maurice Vlaminck.

Fauvism was a short lived style at the turn of the 20th century. 

The philosophy behind fauvism was: COLOR should express the artist's feelings about a subject. They used heavily exaggerated color and simplified lines.

One of my favorite paintings is by Henri Matisse

 Limes Lemons and Yellow Bird reflects my interpretation of the Fauvist painters' style.  It is the second painting in a series.

I begin with a toned 18 x 18 gallery wrap canvas, followed by simple brush sketch in thinned acrylic.

And now the fun begins...where to go after putting all these lines in place?

Light washes of acrylic, working warm and cool colors..

My thoughts were to add visual texture to the piece, so collage papers were added, a stencil design for the fabric and for some reason the decision to not have the vase clear glass.

Back to more collage and re-defining lines.

Adding black and white to a colorful painting, helps to diffuse the intensity. Therefore, the collage of black and white stripes on the bowl.

Because I worked over a period of two months on this piece  (meaning I couldn't find the time to work on it) I made some major alterations....like letting the fish be chased off by a spindly yellow bird with a squeeze of lime on his head;

adding an additional pattern to the vase and restructuring the fruit.

It is almost a completely different piece.

If it hadn't taken so long to complete, I wonder if I would have made so many changes to the end painting? 

 I hope the fish are happy elsewhere, the bird has to decide how to peck at a watermelon with a lime slice on his head.

This painting is available on my S Furner Fine Art website.

Sold...thank you Geri, I hope this painting brings you much happiness.