Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spreading Sunshine - Tap Dance Series Watercolor

"Spreading Sunshine"
24" x 18" watercolor on paper
©2010 Stacy L. Rowan
Available

Finally I am sharing with you my first watercolor in my tap dance series! I am not sure why it took me so long, but I am glad I am doing it now.

My model for this painting was the creative and talented Germaine Salsberg. She was in town creating choreography for the Tap Ties company and agreed to allow me to come to several rehearsals and take pictures. I tried to act very suave and professional but truthfully I was a little star struck.

The first rehearsal I attended Ms. Salsberg was wearing these wonderful yellow shoes. I loved them and knew immediately that I had to paint them! What could possibly be more fun than tap dancing in yellow shoes? Well, maybe painting a tap dancer in yellow shoes, but not a whole lot else.

When it came to naming the piece, I wanted to reference the shoes because they were my inspiration. Since I view tap dancing as a dance of joy, "Spreading Sunshine" just seemed to fit.

This is the largest piece in my tap dance series and for now the only watercolor. (Although I have more planned!) It is currently on display at the William Ris Gallery in Stone Harbor, NJ. I hope you like it.

3 comments:

M J Muir said...

I LOVE the colour Stacy.

Jennifer Rose said...

wonderful colours :D i love the yellow shoes!

Stacy said...

Thank you ladies! I love the color too and it was a complete happy accident.

I had the reference in Photoshop Elements and was correcting the color since it was taken indoors under artificial light. I was clicking on the white, black and gray areas like they tell you to and seeing which looked best. Then I just decided to click around randomly and one area I clicked gave me the awesome blues and purples in the background ad floor. I knew immediately that was how I was going to paint it!!