Summer of Color #6

I can't say that I was very happy when I saw this week's color choices. Two oranges and a blue? I love this combination - I wear it quite often.

one of my orange & blue ensembles

But, it is not a combination that I would use in a painting. I am not saying that I haven't used it but the subject has to be right, like this painting that I did back in '02.

Orange & Blue 5 x 7 watercolor

At any rate, with nothing coming to mind I decided (once again) to just play and see what happens.

Feathery - 11 x 14 acrylic

Although I have signed the painting, I am not sure if it is finished. I rather like the effect but I think I will have to live with it for a while before I decide if it needs more work.

This has been a very interesting 6 weeks - where has the time gone? - and I have enjoyed the color prompts that Kristin gave us. If you want to see some of the latest submissions check out Kristin's blog - http://twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/

Summer of Color #5

Once again the participants in this year's SOC were set a considerable challenge. Two greens and a pink - where does she come up with these combinations?

Because I had more time this week, I decided to paint some fabric. The colors weren't really inspiring me so I just played. I used some GAC 900 and fluid acrylics, mixing cyan and yellow to get two different greens and just going with primary magenta for my pink.

painted fabric tote bag

other side of tote with pocket showing

I painted two pieces of fabric because I mixed up too much paint (I still have some left - lol). I made a nice large tote bag: perfect for carrying a couple of 11 x 14 paintings or some binders. The bag is lined with a pocket inside and one outside.

painted fabric in greens & pink

I will probably make another bag with the second piece of fabric but who knows?

While I was thinking about greens & pink, I decided to try something with my watercolors. The best thing about painting is being able to mix your colors so I started experimenting until I got some shades that I liked and then I did a simple little landscape. It is hard to believe that I just used the three colors stipulated - hooker's green, thalo yellow green and permanent rose.

At the Lakeside 5 x 7 watercolor

There is just one week left in the SOC challenge - what will Kristin come up with next? You can read more about the SOC here - http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/2015/07/the-summer-of-color-5-week-5.html

Summer of Color #4

I made it! I really didn't think that I would be able to find the time this week to do a piece for the SOC #4 but I managed to find a few minutes here and there in the last two days and was able to complete a mixed media painting on a 7 x 14 gallery wrap canvas.

Red & Gold

The colors for this week were two reds and a metallic. The reds were no problem, of course, I used Cadmium Red Medium and Alizarin Crimson, standard colors in most painters' boxes. The metallic was a bit more challenging. I hunted through my stash of mixed media materials and came up with a few things that I thought would work together. The butterflies are from a gossamer thin napkin so I stuck them to a piece of gold paper and cut them out. The cross was a gift from a friend: it is made out of thin wood and I painted it with some gold gesso. I added some branches and leaves painted with the gold and voilà!

Here's another photo that makes the gold look a little more gold. As Kristin mentioned in our instructions part of the challenge would be to show the metallic quality of the art in a photo. I am not sure how well I accomplished this but I tried - lol.

If you want to check out some of the other art in this challenge, here is the link to Kristin's blog - http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-summer-of-color-5-week-four.html

Summer of Color #3

My first reaction on learning this week's colors was 'How on earth will I do this'. I just couldn't get my head around 2 purples and a yellow; I felt that I had never worked in those colors before.

Anyway, I went off to my studio and started my assignment. I began working on a card because until the pieces are glued they are just a number of separate elements that can be used for other things if they don't work together.

I used one of my home-made stamps and my own painted papers for the flowers and the quilling. Okay, not bad, but I just wasn't satisfied!

I glanced at some reference photos that are lying on my table to be used in another painting and thought, "oh no, that will not look good in purples and yellow'. BUT I decided to try it anyway.

Sun Shadowed 5 x 7 unframed watercolor

All right that worked out okay, AND before I had worked 5 minutes I realized that I had painted this color combination before - more than once! The colors are, of course, compliments and so work together quite well.

I often work wet-in-wet and I wondered what would happen using that approach. Would I end up with a muddy gray mess?

Purple Mists

 As you can see, I added another shade of purple just to make a change. I wet the paper, threw on my three colors (in no particular pattern) and left it to dry. I really liked the end result - no gray mess - but added some misty trees to give it a more finished look.



So, there are my results for week #3 of the SOC. What will she have for us next week?

If you want to know more about this challenge go to http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-summer-of-color-5-week-three.html

Summer of Color #2

The second week of the Summer of Color got off to a much better start - I got the color choice on Monday so I had lots of time to plan. Here is what I came up with:

The Protector

Sticking with the fantasy theme, I decided on a Unicorn. The painting is a 7 x 10 unframed watercolor with acrylic ink.

The colors for this week were 2 pinks and an orange. After looking at other people's work from last week and a few from this week, I judged that it was permitted to use ink and that it wouldn't be classed in the color selection. Many people use stamps, words and sometimes drawings, so I thought it would be OK to draw a scene in ink.

I had my sketch done quite quickly but spent a few days deciding on an ink color. Some of the inks I used where not water-proof and the effects when I added the watercolor paint are interesting.

Solitary Fir

On Mountain Slopes

I did four examples  - little 5 x 7 sketches - and it is a good thing that only two turned out to be worth framing because I painted on both sides of the paper. I should know better as you never know when something is going to turn out; even if you are just playing. Here are the reverse paintings:

This last piece helped me decide to use the blue ink. If I had used the brown ink it would have been more in keeping with the colors I was supposed to use, as diluted it was very orangy but I liked the contrast the blue provided.

I can't wait to see what next week brings - On With the Challenge!

Summer of Color #1

After the "30 paintings in 30 days" challenge that I did in January I didn't expect to take on something similar but the "Summer of Color" sounds like fun, so here I go again!

For some reason, I thought I was registered but I never received my instructions so I guess I wasn't. Fortunately, I am on the SOC group page on Facebook and got a notice yesterday about posting our work so I was able to go the blog (below) and find out this week's orders.

The organizer of the Summer of Color is Kristin Van Valkenburgh and you can find out how the whole challenge thing works on her blog - http://www.twinkletwinklelikeastar.blogspot.com 

(I admit that I find the posting instructions for this challenge a bit confusing: you get the chance to win something if you do some other things but I don't know what those are or how to do them. It really doesn't matter as I am in it for the painting not for prizes, although I won't refuse if I should win) 

At any rate, this week's instructions were to create something using 2 blues and a green. As Faeries have been on my mind recently that is what I started with and here is where I ended up.

Magick Garden

Magick Garden is an 8 x 10 mixed media on a gallery wrap canvas. I used some painted paper towel to make the flowers, my own hand-made stamps, some sliver glitter glue, silver thread and finished the piece off with a pottery piece by a friend -  http://bluemoonpottery.blogspot.ca/

I look forward to participating in this challenge and, hopefully, next week I will get notification of the colors we are to use early enough to actually plan a painting - lol!

Experimenting and Learning

I think most artists continue to experiment and learn throughout their careers. Whether one is a professional with long years of work behind them or a relative beginner, it is important to work at keeping your art fresh.

I am lucky in that way because my art students often ask to paint something that I have never painted before so while I am teaching, I am also learning. A few years ago, Teresa wanted to paint an Elk - antlers and all. She had her own photo to work from and I grabbed one off the internet. I had painted deer before but always in the distance so little detail was needed. For this picture, although I had no interest in photo-realism, I needed to put fuzz on the antlers and have a pretty decent looking face.

Big Boy 10 x 14 acrylic on paper

Recently my newest student, Jean, wanted to try a butterfly. She looked through my meagre butterfly reference material and chose a picture that left me somewhat aghast. "How was I going to teach her this? She has had about 12 lessons and this is pretty complicated"

This is a photo of a photo in an old Northlight Magazine, so the image isn't great BUT this is what Jean wanted to paint! It is "Peacock Sunning on Stones" by Sarais B. Crawshaw.

So I prepared a couple of watercolor canvases and some masking tape masques for the butterfly. We transferred the image on to the paper and applied the masques then we set about trying different ways to paint the rocks. Of course, we used a separate piece of paper: we tried salt, sea sponges, splatter with both screen and fingers - nothing seemed to be working. Finally I decided to try dry brush and it seem to work the best.

Before we could progress to our prepared canvases, Jean decided that she really didn't want to do this picture after all and she would look for another reference.

However my interest was caught! Could I reproduce this picture? I don't normally copy another artist's work but this presented a real challenge and I couldn't resist.

Peacock Butterfly 8 x 10 watercolor

I am pretty happy with the way this painting turned out and I am glad I did it because I learned a lot.

Now comes the thorny question - can I sell this painting? I am not likely to compete in the same market as Sarais B. Crawshaw but even if I credit her on the back of my painting it doesn't strike me as ethical. This question has come up a number of times in the Art Club I belong to but the answers have always been split. What is your take on this question?