Carny (Revisited)

Last year my friends and I visited the Amador County Fair, a trip that is coming up again in a few weeks.  It is a great little Fair...a page from the past when going to the Fair was a pleasant family experience. 4-H kids showing their beautiful steers and sheep and calves, art exhibits, a parade of antique tractors down 'main street', lots of shade trees for sitting under while having a corn dog and beer....well it just doesn't get much better than that.  And of course there is a 'midway' with all the rides and coin tosses and cheap prizes.

And there along the midway, I spotted this Country Fair Carny seeking shade under an umbrella while waiting for the next muscle man to come along and want to show off to his girl. On the very warm July day, the suckers were few and far between.

I painted this version of The Carny shortly after that visit....

  

Recently I was looking at the painting - one which I have always liked - and thinking about composition, focus and the challenge of the background.  As much as I felt this painting turned out pretty well, I also had never quite figured out the background. The Carny seemed a little lost in the  'confusion'.   In particular however, I wanted to play with how I might have made it a better composition...something with more impact from across a room.

I pulled the painting off the wall began to sketch a larger Carny right over the original, emphasizing the diagonal relationship of his body to the canvas.  I also played with how to suggest a background without allowing it to be a major part of the painting.  I wanted something to 'frame' the Carny, not compete with him.

Carny    Oil on stretched canvas  11 x 14 inches

The Carny is a much different painting now.  This is how I remembered him.  Although he was surrounded by midway "stuff" and by people walking by, he was quite alone.  His boredom was palpable in the heat of the summer day.  This is what I saw when I snapped the photograph.

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

"Carnie" Figure in Oil

This "Carnie" (or "Carney") was spotted at the Carnival section of the Amador County Fair a few weeks ago.  It was mid afternoon on a very hot summer day and business was a little slow, apparently.  I had stopped to enjoy a corn dog and beer when I spotted him.

This is an 11 x 14 on stretched canvas.  I tried to keep the very busy background as loose and abstract as I could.  I wanted only the Carnie and the Sledge Hammer Bell Tower to stand out.  This painting was completed in about 3 -4 hours in two sessions.   The first was the block in kept very abstract and the second was spent defining the elements that I wanted to have as the focus.

I really enjoyed the way this painting came together.  It seemed almost effortless.  Having a great subject matter definately helped!  (The corn dog and the COLD beer was good too!)

Carnie   11 x 14 Oil on stretched canvas 

Here's the block in at the end of the first session.

Carnie   WIP

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art