I've decided to take a moment, and share each of my pieces with you so that you may get to know them better. Each painting is a part of the world the way I see. Someone I knew, something I saw, or something I think. All of what I paint I find beautiful in some way. With these Hot Air Balloons, the beauty is obvious.
Color is what draws me to this scene. The brilliant colors of these balloon is quite unnatural, and therefore must be explored. Beyond the vibrant colors of these balloons, the shear size of them brought me to attention. Not only did I want to capture the utter beauty of the designs, but somehow capture their enormous size in a painting.
The composition was going to be key for this. Having some of the balloons partially inflated on the ground, while others were ready to disembark the earth, would give the viewer a range of understanding of how these balloons came to be suspended in the sky. I also felt the need to "scale" them against something. Naturally, they could be scaled against the people that wrangled them, they could also be scaled against the awestruck onlooker. As you can see one couple posing for a picture in front of a sea of color. Also trucks and distant trees give to the illusion of grandeur.
I am quite pleased with this painting, felling as though I have captured all I wanted to. The morning these balloons neighbored my house is a morning I shall not soon forget.
~Maranda
