"New Leaf" (Part 1 of 2)

(Part 1 of 2)

The quote will come tomorrow, but what you are viewing today is a few pieces of watercolor paper with texture created with heavy body acrylics, a palette knife, commercial texture stamps, a handmade leaf stamp, and the sharp corner of an old credit card. What I will be posting tomorrow will be a finished 6" x 6". I obviously have way too many pieces, but the idea is to have a multitude of options. 

The piece I completed yesterday ("The Coast") is now being displayed at Solas Gallery in Salado. There is a range of my work being displayed there with Photographic Portraiture, since it is a Photography Gallery. What the owners of the gallery and I have discovered is that abstract work with very realistic photography is a wonderful mix.

Today I want to share a few things I've learned about the "color block" pieces I've been creating. One of the primary decisions that will help to feature the blocks with more detail or strong color is to surround those particular ones with neutral colors or blocks with minimal detail. For instance, "The Coast" had a featured block that was actually a small painting that could have stood on its own. What I did was surround that particular block with colors and texture that complemented the featured block but did not compete with the fact that it was the feature.

Since many of you have experimented with pouring medium, you would not want to place blocks of pouring medium together that all had swirling color. Some of those blocks might need to be solid colors that complement the one or two blocks that had several colors.

Another example would be the large piece I created for "The Psalms". All of the old text pages, and rice paper, as well as the hand lettering of the first verse of Psalm 91 were all placed within the gray/black or neutral blocks. The yellow/green and blue/green blocks had no text...no rice paper...and minimal texture.

So it is these kind of decisions that will help to create a successful "color block"....should you want to give it a try. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.