Mango Show

Umami got invited to submit a piece for "The Mango Show."  The press release for the show says:  "Mango season is officially here!  In celebration of this delicious summertime delight, local artists will present original works showcasing the mango’s diverse varieties and flavors at The Mango Show.  Through drawings, paintings, photographs and more prepare to take a look at the majestic mango like you’ve never seen it before.  The exhibit will take place from August 9 to 26, in the Courtyard of Honolulu Hale.

The show is not strictly representational, so "interpretations" are accepted, even encouraged.  As if you could ever tell artists what to do in the first place!

Umami's jumping off point, then, is the end of the mango season, prompted by the fact that his mango tree had a lot of fruit a month ago, but is now fruit free.  For a while, though, there were a lot of mangoes on the tree . . . and on the ground.

So here's Umami's reference photo.  The "Blair Witch" lights and darks are cool, so if the color palette goes to blue, the dark orange and yellow mangoes on the ground ought to pop.  Actually, this would actually be a pretty decent piece by itself.

How to translate it to a painting?  Umami's never been particularly interested in representational painting, capturing the scene, or making pretty pictures.  Far better to play with the paint and make a huge mess of it.

Not a lot of time for that though.  Show is coming up soon and Umami doesn't have a decent painting and is running out of time to put something together.  It's hard, too, because he hasn't painted in a while . . . so the work is proving difficult!  But this is what we've got so far:  heavy gesso over an old painting, with multiple diox purple and pthalo blue washes.  Some cad red mixed in to try to build some complexity.  Not a mango in sight yet, though!  Will have to see what happens next.