The Unforgettable Day
About this artwork
Three figures stand along the edge, hoping to remember every detail of that unforgettable day, Gena says of this composition. Her goal, as with much of her work, is to entice with mystery. Color fields of pink, red and yellow dance around the figures. Moody greens and darker blues enter the lower section of the painting, as sheer washes of pale colors dissolve and trickle across the figures.Part of Gena's ongoing Illumination series, exploring mood and emotion through abstract portraits. She begins each piece with a dark background, adding fast, autonomous and broad marks. As the work progresses, she reveals and wipes away a history of her mark-making, selectively deciding what imagery to keep and what to discard. She continues the process until recognizable imagery and figures materialize. Her reference material for these portraits is mostly color schemes observed in nature or from memory.