Mixed Media Fun With David Graham's "Nan and Vy"

 "Nan and Vy, Rome, ME,1982"
Photograph used with permission of photographer
David Graham

Why do we fall in love with certain images? The minute the photograph above appeared in my Pinterest feed, I knew that I wanted (or is it that I needed?) to paint it.

But first I wanted to find out who the photograph belonged to. Following the Pinterest link did not provide any information so I used the search feature on google images.

I discovered that David Graham was the photographer.

The above photograph was part of David Graham’s “Thirty-Five Years/35 Pictures” exhibit in 2014 and he has titled the photograph, "Nan and Vy, Rome, ME,1982". According to the article on Slate, this is one image taken over 35 years using an 8-by-10-view camera.

I wrote to David Graham for permission to use his image as  the basis for a mixed-media painting and to use on this website to explain my process. David generously agreed writing, "Sure!! Go right ahead. Have fun."

Thank you, David.

Value study

I played with simple colour palettes.

I love that the two women in the photograph are wearing bathing caps, bathing suits and big smiles. I love that they are standing on the porch of a cottage with laundry hanging and fishing rods at the ready. I love the colours and that the cottage is made of unpeeled logs.

The following Alan Bradley quote sums up my love for this photograph:

In my mind, this image was an opportunity to play with mixed media and I knew that I wanted to start with acrylics. I used yellow, orange and red for the underpainting.

I added dioxazine violet (PV 23) acrylic for the dark areas and added some soft pastel. I love dioxazine violet so much because of its strong tinting strength and I prefer to use it as my "black".

I added beautifully transparent manganese blue hue acrylic (PB15:4 / PG7 / PW4) to other areas. I was given this colour as a free sample and fell in love with it. 

I  used ink and white gel pen for the details and collaged an excerpt of Alan Bradley's quote

To see more of David Graham's photographs, visit his website http://www.davidgrahamphotography.com/

This painting is for sale.