Jelly Bean Mail
I always say that I have a story for each of my paintings, and that I can't even start a piece without having one. With "Jelly Bean Mail", there is a story but I really wasn't sure of it when I started the painting. A young lady who works on the giclee reproductions I have made for the limited edition prints asked if I could do a painting without a wide variety of greens being in it. Many of the pieces I have done do have numerous levels of that hue and it does lead to some challenging times for proofing the reproduction scans. So after laughing about her comment, I said that I would do a piece to meet "her criteria".
When I got back to my art table, I began to look through my photo references for a subject that I could do which didn't require a number of green values. After looking at what felt like hundreds pictures, I couldn't find anything that met the requirement. Everything had to have multitudes of green shades. So, I picked a photo with a group of mail boxes and did a color study substituting other colors for areas that should have been green. As I worked on it, I realized it was nonsensical but it was also fun to do. I also realized that my color palette could easily be confused for a bag of jelly beans. With that thought in mind, "Jelly Bean Mail" was created. And yes, the young lady at the reproduction shop was very pleased with my efforts.
"Jelly Bean Mail" is a watercolor on 22" by 15" 140 lb. cold press paper, and is copyrighted by Gerry Grimes, the artist. He retains all rights regarding copies and/or reproductions regardless of the ownership of the original by others. The original is in a private collection.
A few giclee prints are available.
