Thinking About Color

I spotted this statue titled "Perpetual Mourner" in St. Louis' Bellefontaine Cemetery.  After doing the value sketch and the drawing on the watercolor paper, I looked at it for hours, trying to decide which colors to use.  To convey the mood, I decided against using warm colors.  Then suddenly it occurred to me that black and white would communicate the mood and the grief better than any color could.

I also abstracted and softened the tree shapes in the background.  Local color would have called for green, but continuing the use of grays was imperative to maintain the unity and mood of the painting.

The mysterious figure hidden within the shroud is ambiguous about its gender.  Grief is grief, no matter the sex of the mourner. 

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black..."