Painting, with a dash of language

Tryangles, a composition made up of triangles, unfinished as of earlier today, having painted myself into a corner.

A corner is not the worst place to be.

I'm making the painting for my brother who's just gone through a tough time.

I asked him the other day, "what are your favorite colors?" He said, without hesitating, "black, purple, yellow, and red."

When I asked my brother to name his favorite colors I was already thinking of making a painting of triangles, as I'd already made paintings of circles, squares, and hexagons, but I couldn't decide what colors to use. I only knew I did not want to use any more than four colors for the triangle painting.

My brother gave me the palette for the triangle painting. He lives in Las Vegas. He doesn't yet know what he's given me; I want it to be a surprise.

I've decided to make two triangle paintings, one hand rendered, as seen above, and one in which I use triangle stencils. I've also decided to stay with the four colors my brother said were his favorite colors, but to make each color a little paler as it moves toward the center of the canvas. And to have the paler triangles converge on a small white or off-white circle in the middle of the canvas.

I'll see if I can pull it off. I'm not sure that I can. I'm placing a little burden on language by naming the paintings,Tryangles, but that move feels right to me.

If I do pull it off I'll give one of the triangle paintings to my brother and keep one for myself.

Should my biographer ask, "what sort of painter are you?" I'll say, "I make abstract paintings out of representational objects."