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"Luxembourg Gardens Two" - Paris, France

In the mid 1980's my interest in chess resurfaced. In my travels, I sketched and photographed chess players in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. No place is quite as popular with Parisian chess players as the chess area in the heart of the Jardin du Luxembourg. The park is known for the green metal chairs (which I changed to blue), and the dappled light, which I loved at the time. I imagined Renoir must have experienced a similar feeling under the trees.

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The focus is all about the game. In the close-up below, the onlooker sizes up the strategy.

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The chess players generally bring their own (usually old) chess boards and pieces to the park. There are sometimes a few very good players who lug their clocks in hope of some speed chess (blitz).

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Below - Detail of the background

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I began painting Luxembourg Gardens Two in the late 1980's. In 2011, it was listed (as an unfinished painting) on a chess site as well as the National Library of France. That piqued my interest in finishing the painting, and I began working on it again. The more "finished" it became, the less I liked it. Part of the problem was the colors I chose. In the original scene that I sketched and photographed, the forest was green, the grass was green, the chairs were green, and even my main character's shirt was green. i knew I couldn't keep that much green.

So, I began with changing the chairs to blue. Then I noticed that everyone else in the composition was wearing blue. This went on for a while. It reminded me of my art school days, when I so fell in love with my charcoal drawings, but when I tried to transfer them to color, something was lost, and it was more than just the contrast (chiaroscuro).

So I once again put the work aside. Then in 2013, I decided to completely change the colors of everything. I remembered that the ground in the area where the chess players gathered actually was more dirt than grass. So I started there and moved on to color choices for the clothing that made more complementary sense. I lost some of the original feelings I had for the painting, but I am much happier with the color composition.

Below - These are the present photos of Luxembourg Gardens Two.

Above left, low resolution                                   Above right, high resolution