What's in a name?
When I am thinking of a title of a painting I've finished, I often struggle between feeling a strong need to communicate the location of the painting to the viewer - I really want them to know where it was that I found this beauty - vs. a clever title that is perhaps a play on words, my feelings about the subject, and all the other things I might want to communicate to the viewer in a short phrase that is more than just the location. Lately, I have been thinking that the location is just not enough; that a title ought to be much more. Sometimes, the title creates humor ["Orange Thingy at Coyote Point" got some smiles from multiple viewers at SVOS, AND I managed to sneak in the location!], evokes a certain feeling, brings forth a memory, makes a connection, might make you look again because it is revealing something you may have missed in the painting, and perhaps you might ask "Where was this?" It could be a conversation starter. Just the location doesn’t take the conversation too far forward.
What would I name this? I did this outdoors, with the sunlight kissing an arrangement of sunflowers in a vase, but I only picked this one to paint. I was really thinking about the colors, looking at the layers, the darks, the small shapes that suggest shadows and crevices.
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