Test Patterns (Mea Cupla)

Another from the Test Pattern series. It's curious to me how many of these are turning out sideways. Here's the original collage study with it's "proper" orientation of two stacked rows of vertical bands:



Below is the completed 8 x 8" painting. It took a good bit of fussing to get the left half of the piece to work - I had to tinker with the hues of the blue bands to get them to relate to the blue form at the bottom center, and to get just the right right-leaning slant so that all of the forms balanced. I also mirrored the pink & red forms from the upper right in the dark vertical band at the top center:



For comparison here's the original collage study rotated to match the orientation of the finished painting:


I've been thinking about the differences between the small collage studies and the (slightly) larger panel paintings. One thing I've noticed is the larger pieces are much more dense - the forms are usually more opaque and delineated, whereas the smaller collages are more fluid and offhand. In both cases I think it works okay - the larger pieces seem more solid and hold the wall better while the smaller studies are more intimate and sexy. Anyway, just my thoughts - yours?