How Rita Paints: Impasto, Color and Light

Dance of Thanksgiving, a painting by Rita Miramontes with bold color juxtapositions and thick textured strokes

Dance of Thanksgiving by Rita Miramontes. See the print

Her process combines four elements: impasto, color juxtaposition, underpainting and the use of non-local color.

Impasto

Tools such as serrated metal, palette knives and sticks are used to build highly textured, heavy impasto surfaces. There is a brutality to the action of Miramontes' painting process. Some surfaces are built up so much that they appear to be actual three-dimensional elements.

Highly charged emotions are expressed through scraping and slashing with broad strokes. The action of the process is exposed in a raw way, and no attempt is made to hide the physical act of painting. This way of working does not come from a method. It is a pure expression of the intense emotion connected with creating the work and with its subject.

Color Juxtaposition

Conflicts are created through the juxtaposition of opposite colors and unexpected contrasts that work together to create illusion. Two colors viewed side by side can create a third color, and when you shift your view, the individual colors can be seen on their own again. This optical illusion adds to the complexity of the palette.

Underpainting

The first layers of paint are applied lightly, with the final colors already in mind. This develops a richness of color that is not possible without underpainting.

Non-Local Color

Many of her compositions use non-local color, color that is not the natural color of the object. This can be seen in the paintings of Nicolas Poussin. In his Adam and Eve in the Garden, the figures take on a greenish hue much like the plants of the garden, expressing their unity with the garden itself. Miramontes brings this idea into her own work to express her figures' oneness and connection with the Paradisal Garden.

More in This Series

This article is part of a series on the art of Rita Miramontes.

Explore the paintings in the full collection, or read more about Rita.