Start/Finish of “Judasing,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58″ x 38″
Preliminary charcoal sketch on sandpaper
Finished painting, before signing
Comments are welcome!
Posted on June 4, 2016, in 2016, Art Works in Progress, Black Paintings, Creative Process, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Photography, Studio, Working methods and tagged " "Judasing", charcoal, finish, finished, painting, pastel, preliminary, sandpaper, signing, sketch, start. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
barbararachkoscoloreddust.com 
Fabulous from start to finish!
Dear Barbara – I am a great fan of yours. I so admire your pastels on sandpaper paintings. Colors and shapes are gorgeous. (I am a painter, too, oils on canvas – semi-abstract ‘people’ paintings.
In your latest, the title is a little off-putting. I think you intended “Judas-ing” for its title. But the image and the title at first looks like those terrible anti-semitic blasphemies against the Jews for so many centuries culminating with Hitler’s caricatures of Jews with the German word for Jew: “Jude”. So you can see how, at first scan, it took my breath away – gasp!
I thought you might want to check out your title, perhaps that simple hyphen between Judas and ‘ing’ would suffice without being a sacrifice for you.
Thank you for hearing me out.
My very best wishes to you and your beautiful creations.
Ronnie (Ruth) Tuft
Ronnie, I see your point, although I haven’t heard this before and certainly it was not my intention. I happened to read the word “Judasing” in a David Mitchell novel (“Cloud Atlas”) and thought it a good title: somewhat more imaginative than my first title, “Judas.” I collect Mexican paper mache Judas figures and don’t actually associate them with the real person. When I look at my collection, the figures remind me of glorious days spent traveling around Mexico as I remember how each one came into my life. Please see https://barbararachkoscoloreddust.com/2015/05/16/q-would-you-talk-about-how-the-judas-figures-you-depict-in-your-pastel-paintings-function-in-mexico/
I am so sorry to have offended you and will try to be more mindful in selecting painting titles next time.