As you might have noticed in some of the header images, I sometimes end up with photos that have a single dominant color. I commissioned a set of paintings from Oriana which were completed over a year’s time. Each one features, and is named for, it’s color. All of these are based from photos I took except for one taken in Greece by one of my former students.

The Spectrum of Pride Series (2015-16)
by Oriana Kacicek (1986-)
Coppola Collection

“Hong Qiao” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(“Hong Qiao” means “Red Bridge” or “Red Entrance Way” in Mandarin. This is a close-up of a door at the entrance to the Forbidden City (Gu Gong) in Beijing, China, taken in 2004)

“Green Gorge” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(The original picture was taken on a boat trip through the Three Gorges area in Chongqing, China, in 2008)

“Golden Rise” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(The original picture was taken in the morning, at the entrance to the Three Gorges area in Chongqing Province, China, in 2010)

“Orange Slice” (2015-16)
6×24 in., oil on linen
(The original picture was taken in the morning, at the entrance to the second of the Three Gorges area in Chongqing Province, China, in 2009)

“Blue Bounty” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(The original picture was taken around Dam Cau Hai, a large inland bay between Da Nang and Hue, Vietnam, in 2014)

“Indigo Limbo” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(The gull not only pulls this entire composition together – I had Oriana move it ever so slightly from its place in the photo, which was about there – but it inspired the title. You can jump to whatever you want with the image of a bird in flight and its symbolism. It is also lined up, on one side, with the trajectory of the crosses, and on the other side, with the red door. So if it strikes you as a spirit poised on the cusp between heaven and hell, then you get why I gave it this title. Original picture from 2015)

“Violet Bloom” (2015-16)
8×10 in., oil on linen
(The original picture was taken in Grenada in 2007)