Week #25, Muted Palette IV

Untitled (Black Rectangle and Circle on Blue Ground)), 1986, watercolor on paper, 8 ¾’ x 6”

One more work in this series of Dusti Bongé's works exemplifying her statement about color:

“I love color, I love color everywhere. I love dull colors, I love gray colors—they don’t have to be bright.”

This work has a similar muted palette as the previous works, with just blues, gray, and black. However, it varies from the other ones in that it is not somber in mood.

Although the predominant presence in this work is black, it is set against a background of translucent blues that lend the work a lighter, more transcendent quality. This quality is emphasized by the fact that even though the individual heavy black strokes and circle are clearly defined, they do not have any hard edges. Thus, the way that Dusti made the black marks is determined but not aggressive. As such the edges are allowed to bleed and feather into the watery background.

Dusti’s juxtaposition of the solid black and the ethereal blue is unexpected and extremely effective in creating a simple, et very rich composition.