BLUE CUP AND MEASURING TAPE
( BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE IV )
This painting PINK BOX from 2013 may have been first time that I used the Blue Cup. It’s the first mention of it that I can find.
( PINK BOX oil on canvas. 26” x 16”. Cat 509 )
Six months later I finished a rather cluttered composition involving the blue cup. I took some of the elements out of the still life, pared down the composition, and arrived at BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE almost by accident, I’m not sure that I even have a photograph of that first painting.
( BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE III. Cat 529 )
I sold BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE to a friend almost immediately but people kept asking me for it so I put the objects back on my shelf and painted a second version, which I also sold.
( BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE VII. Cat 645 )
I was initially a little embarrassed about this; I wondered if a similar painting devalued the original but the light and the time of day are different in each painting and I have enjoyed returning to the same composition so they are never identical nor sterile reproductions.
( BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE VIII. Cat 655 )
People continued to ask about the painting and so I made a third version and I have continued to paint the same composition. I reassemble the cast once or twice a year and paint another version. I have so far made eight versions of BLUE CUP WITH MEASURING TAPE and I’ll stop when I’m bored.
