MAY 2020 THIS week's PICTURE

A BEDROOM , WEST VIRGINIA : photo by Malcolm Aslett

Perspective isn't a friend or an enemy but you have to get into the habit of arguing with it.

I think this picture has one major point in its favour and that is the daft appearance of the bed, the way it seems to follow those irrational laws of drawing perspective that leave the forms ridiculously extended in a manner the eye does not experience. The artificiality of the lines in this cramped space make something that would otherwise be a drab interior.

There are details that help the interest. The glowing curtain in the top left that is at odds with the general darkness of the room and the camp bed that seems so unnaturally small in relation to the big bed. I straightened up the rug lines so the perspective lines would be at odds with the right hand side 'center of vision'. - After looking at some De Chirico paintings in Google sketchup I picked up on his intentional breaking the rules and having different perspectives for alternate sides of a street. I think you take it in unconsciously that there is something weird about it. This is the reason for the pic below, which further tweaks the perspective and accents odd objects. But to what effect? Does it change the way we see it?

Something else that is weird about it - the colour scheme. That bedsrpead with the odd mix of blue, brown and deathly pink are a ridiculous choice for a commercial item and yet they seem to be matched by the other choices in the room in wall colouring and items. The mismatch is oddly coordinated, as if the designer of the bedspread also got to choose the furniture and paint. What are the odds?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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