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Oh oh, I didn't paint it very well...
Linda, you are the second person who sees them sitting on the floor, they are in fact sitting on a bit of the sofa that has no back and forms a corner with the rest (ah these italian furniture designer...), I'll have to take another look at it.
The painting is set in the house basement, they have this very big room with a wall made of glass and open space stairs. The streaks of blue on the right wall are actually drawn by the shadows of the steps. The background is made of greys, it is true, but they are very colourful, purple, green and blue.I don't think I would be able to get away from what I see, but will look again especially to that line of the sofa.
My original design idea was based on suggesting the diagonals as a way of unifying the picture and working against a vertical partition that might occurr between the girls.
Alexandra also has commented on the background, and again I am not sure I feel like reworking all of it, maybe I'll save her comments and suggestion for the next painting.
I have been looking at ways to treat a room in the background while painting this picture, and I was very undecided on how sharp I wanted to go.
Beaux's portrait of the man with the cat has a fantastic background, I just am not good enough at painting to achieve that, and actually ended up being more sharp then I intended at the beginning. ( this is something else on my -to learn list just after drapery)
Just a few more lines about this work: as I wrote it was painted almost all from life. I was in between cameras when I started, and my references where not good. This pushed me to work live, and it was the first time that I used live sittings so extensively.
I must say that I enjoyed immensely the connection with the girls, and the parents are happy about how I captured the essence of their characters. At the same time I faced a lot of difficulties from the pressure of having eyes upon me, and from not having the calm of my studio, which did affect my concentration.
I am not totally satisfied with this work, I found it very complex this time, luckily the parents are happy ; I needed to practice this new situation more to raise my confidence and I am afraid I did it at their expences.
I am very happy though that from your comments it looks like I succeeded at least in carrying across the essence of the two children which was one thing I meditated upon a lot while working.
And, after all, tomorrow is another day!
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