Above The Clouds

Piece description from the artist

A man in a canoe, decked out in outdoor wear is literally above the clouds. The clouds have a pinkish-purplish look to them which seems at odds to the man's wooden canoe and overall outdoors-y look.
A quote by Andy Warhol seems pertinent to this particular painting of mine – "Don't think about making art. Just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding make even more art."

And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

This painting was a struggle, though with my initial concept, it seemed eminently simple. Instead of paddling away on a lake, I would have a man in a canoe doing the same in the clouds. Only when I painted the clouds, I realized the perspective for the canoeist wasn't quite right. He wasn't in the clouds, he was above them – and even then, the light source coming from the top left of the painting put even that in question. I contemplated creating a shadow of the canoe on the clouds below – but decided the light source made the angle questionable.
The juxtaposition of the relatively free flowing cloud formations against the rigidity of the canoe and its rower also seemed at odds.

The color palette was strange.
The angles are weird.
The whole concept is almost dreamlike.
Which is why I decided to leave it exactly as it is.

Other works by Tom Blood

About Tom Blood

St. Louis, MO

Tom Blood is a self-taught, modern-day surrealist, heavily influenced by his all-time favourite artist, Rene Magritte. Some of his early works include two crowd favorites – "Bobby Hull" which was created using a palette knife and "The Three Stooges" which was created using three primary colors. Since that time, Tom has pursued a more surrealistic path. He paints ideas. His goal is to paint the impossible, or at least, the highly improbable. With his paintings, viewers can always tell what's going on, not necessarily knowing why. He wants his paintings to tell stories that make people think, or bring a smile. His work has won numerous awards locally and he has had a number of solo shows in the St. Louis, Missouri area where he was born and raised.

See Tom's portfolio here
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