Before the year’s end I want to share with you a gift given to my husband by Jan Politeo, this portrait of me.
Jan has been part of a winter series I have been teaching for a number of years. This group has an annual seminar on Orcas toward the end of September. When we were sharing what we had painted since the last time we were together, Jan took out two portraits. One was of me.
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We have spent a lot of time this year on color. In watercolor, after you have mastered the basic processes you spend much of the rest of your watercolor life refining your understanding of color and composition. There is much to learn and there are always further nuances for these complicated subjects.
I don’t believe in many absolutes in art. Art is the response to a statement of “This MUST be …..” with a “Oh yeah?” and going on to prove the statement wrong.
But one I believe — and I admit this is just me — is DON’T MIX the two colors together when you can either wet blend them or glaze them. Why?
Slickers on the Line
Are you one of the people who are afraid of pthalo green and pthalo blue? If so,perhaps it is time to face your fear and welcome them on your palette.
As I write, my eye catches the header strip on my home page. There you have it – pthalo green and blue. Strong and vibrant, easily developed into all the shades of green or blue we see in the natural world.
The Light Brigade
Summer is the time to get out and see what happens to color in light. Where does color go in bright sunlight? What colors are in dark shadows? Where do you find the true or local color of an object.
Every summer for years, I have enjoyed teaching people what happens to color in light. If you are coming to a class, this month’s technique corner will help you be more prepared. If you are working on your own, plan to try each exercise – more than once…
Walking in the woods the other day, I was thinking of all the courses I have taught, all the students I have taught. I can be pleased with the people I have started, and pleased with insights and discovery I have witnessed as people found they were able to translate their thoughts and emotions about the world around them into images on paper.
But let me tell you about the greatest gift I can give you.
If you have followed parts I and II of the value discussion, you probably realize these discussions could have as easily been titled: Designing your Paintings.
The shapes of the big patterns of lights and darks (as they go on and off the objects) are more important than the shapes of the objects. Look for them. Design them. Make them happen in new and exciting ways. Make them happen in ways that express your intent or content.
But what about color?
Silent Slumber
Color is the rest of your life!
People come into watercolor from so many ways. Some because they think it will be easy (!). Some because they are attracted to its luminosity. Some because of a good experience in their past with watercolor — in school or with a parent or grandparent.
So here you are in watercolor… Are you exploring the wide parameters of the watercolor experience, or are you still “coloring” they way you used it in grade school?
Cole’s Birthday – a grandson discovering a new gift
I don’t like to complain of our weather because generally the Puget Sound’s weather is so much milder than other parts of the country — summer and winter. The 3rd week in January, however, was a different challenge for each of us living in the Sound. Some received 10 inches of snow; many had ice storms, snow and power outages. Transportation snarled. For me on my little 200 acre island, it was a challenge because a) I couldn’t stay home the weekend of 21-22, and b) Jeffrey was in the Caribbean.