"Surf"

($60.00......6" x 6"....Water Soluble Oils on a 2" Depth Cradled Gesso Board)

Today began with a warm up with palette knife and oil paint. Hopefully, I will have the larger one over the finish line very soon. The inspiration for this image came from a color magazine of interior rooms. No quote.

For those who like to have fun with your palette knife, this approach is a good warm up and an excellent way to practice mixing colors from a limited palette. Of course, the palette is set up with a warm and cool of each primary plus white. That makes (7) colors on the palette. At least one of each of the three primaries plus white created the tan color. The mint green was created with Pthalo Blue (just a touch), lemon yellow, a touch of cad red light (to gray it down) and then lots of white.

Having a thorough knowledge of the color wheel and all of the direct complementary colors is essential to changing the intensity of any of the primary colors. Beginning with a small abstract such as this keeps it simple enough to focus on just (2 or 3) colors at a time rather than the full range of values typical in a still life, landscape, or figurative work.

So my double palette consists of lemon yellow, cad. yellow med, alizarin crimson, cad red med, ultramarine blue, pthalo blue, and titanium white. From this you can mix all of the other colors in all their tints and shades. I am writing about this again only because I know that some of you who follow my blog are still struggling with color. The reason I know that is because you've told me. And to quote another teacher who had a profound affect on me...."Always go back to the basics."

It's quite like a professional golfer who changed swing coaches to improve his game. The new coach started out the instruction with...."This is a golf club." And he had already won a lot of titles! So never feel bad about reviewing the basics to improve as an artist. It's the smart thing to do.

The technique I used on this small abstract was to cover the entire space with the tan color. The bottom layer was darker than what you see on top. I then swiped on a few strokes of the mint green, white, and a small bit of orange. The next step was to take a knife and make several gestural movements which mixed all of the colors a bit. I didn't like that so I kept going over it with my palette knife and then applied the mint green and white alternately with a single aggressive stroke. The word "aggressive" is important because the movement of that stroke is what gives the piece energy.  And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Gestural Painting"

(Abstract Study with Palette Knife and Water Soluble Oils on Cradled Gessobord)

There is no quote for this piece, but I do have several recognizable words such as dynamic...serendipity...and energy. They all describe where I am trying to go now with my palette knife work. This is just the starting point and will end up looking more like an abstract landscape in much larger sizes.

I began this piece with the light blue covering the entire surface of a 16" x 20" cradled gessobord. Working in water soluble oils, I painted in some rectangular shapes of the different colors you see in the painting. After those were in place, I wrote into the paint with a pointed shaper tool since the paint was very thick.

The next part is exciting. I took a palette knife that looks very much like a spatula for spreading icing on a cake and swiped horizontally through all of the layers of paint. There was more writing created with an extremely sharp pointed palette knife followed by more swipes with the larger knife.

In addition to removing paint, I also added some of the same colors back in to make sure the light blue was dominant and the orange created some alternating effects. This type of painting is a rather chaotic process, but there are several things that make it work.

The most important is the use of a limited palette. All of these colors are appearing in various tints, shades, and intensities. If colors are used in all of their intensity throughout the painting, a "garish" look is the result.

The other important factor is the design principle of dominance. One color must dominate a piece in order to have unity. There is also a wide range of values as seen on the gray scale. That too is important. If the darks are not dark enough or the lights are not light enough, the piece lacks the contrast of value that is so critical in creating depth. And values are the most subtle of the design elements and can sneak up on any artist.

This piece may or may not ever be exhibited, but it does take me back into palette knife painting with a renewed energy. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Old Shack" (final)

(final)

(unavailable at this time.....finished size is 8" x 16")

"Collections of memories often reside in places like an old shack." I am not quite sure where we lived when I was around age six or seven, but I do know that there was an old shack out back that seemed like the perfect place to set up my table and chairs, along with dishes, and serve mud pies to my dolls and stuffed animals. You probably have a similar story of an old shack with tools or other paraphernalia that captured your imagination.

So forget everything I said yesterday about setting this piece aside for awhile. I kept looking at it last evening and this morning I knew that it would be better to change up the sizes of the color blocks a bit by making another cut or two and then create a larger color block on the right hand side by having the low intensity red color touch three sides of the design space. That is also true of the blue areas and by cutting a bit off of one of the other blocks, I now have some alternation going on.

I also came up with a quote that happened to fit perfectly at the top of the small painting of the shack. However, this surface (because of the heavy acrylic) was a bit "bumpy" to write on so I did not spray it this morning and if I feel the need tomorrow, I will rewrite the quote by washing it off and doing it again. (The brown lettering was written with WN VanDyke Brown.)

It's all about leaving open as many options as possible. And that's why I did adhere the pieces to a 300 lb. HP paper rather than a clayboard....just in case I have the urge to crop it up and do something else. Whatever is decided will be what the piece is telling me to do, but this morning I am satisfied with the outcome and it will probably be mounted to a clayboard on down the line. I could also opt to place it in a frame. Once again, it's all about options. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Old Shack" (draft 2)

(draft 2)

Today is the birth of a very different kind of color block piece. All of the colors were mixed on a limited palette which gives a completely different flavor to the presentation. The jury is still out on this one.

The final size of this piece is an 8" x 16". I have painted the support a medium gray color mixed from the same colors in the piece. So that means there will not be any black in the piece, but several areas of a dark brown.

This one may grow on me, but I will not be adhering it to the support until I know for sure that it's a keeper. What I've decided to do today is adhere all of the pieces to a 300 lb HP section cut to the size of the board. That allows me to study it for a while before committing. I might even tape the pieces down first so that I can keep my options open about changing any color blocks or simply moving them around. And that is the way it goes with all experimental works. To not try different designs and techniques is to stay the same and that is simply not an option for me.

I have gone on and on about the benefits of color blocking and here are some more. If any of you are like me and like a variety of techniques such as simple printmaking, sgraffito, collage, palette knife painting, sanding, etc.....then you would like doing this because all of these looks can be incorporated in the blocks. And the variety of space division possibilities is infinite.

So what I will likely do today is suspend this piece for a few days or forever and move on to a new piece while I let this one simmer on the back burner. And there your have it...just a few more things to think about.

"The Secret Place" (draft 3)

(draft 3)

Today you are seeing the entire support which measures 24" x 36". Nothing is yet adhered to the support and so I am still able to move pieces around. You can see that I have moved the piece that was in the bottom left hand corner up to the top left corner. And so it will go for a few more days until all of the pieces find their places.

Two color combinations I have always been fond of are yellow/green and blue/green. So those are my two selections for greens in their various values and intensities. This choice of greens gives me a warm and a cool green which is why they look good together.

The best yellow/green I have ever mixed is Green Gold (Golden) + Cad. Yellow Light + a bit of Raw Umber. And that is the mixture your see today. The blue/green was mixed with Cobalt Turquoise + a bit of Raw Umber. Raw Umber is a perfect choice for decreasing the intensity of any color. And that is the blue/green you see today.  For this type of work it is great, but if I am painting an oil, I use a limited palette and choose a bit of the direct complement to lower intensity.

Working in mixed media is like directing an orchestra. You have all of the instruments (your materials and techniques) and then it is up to you to compose the music and choose which instruments will be featured as a solo. The grays in this piece are equivalent to the instruments like the tuba, timpani, and many of the other instruments that create the deep tones and foundation for the more "flashy" instruments such as the violin, trumpet, snare drums, etc. In this piece, those sections with the yellow/green and blue/green represent those instruments that are featured.

Another way of saying it is to emphasize the brilliantly colored areas by surrounding them with neutrals. So I could expand my favorite quote on color by saying that black, white, and gray plus one or two other colors works every time it's tried.

Color is a vast subject and can be overwhelming so keeping it simple is always a good option until you become more confident. This is also a good time to re-emphasize the idea of calling colors their proper name by their description on the color wheel. If you can develop that habit, it will help you on down the road when you need to mix a color from a limited palette. For instance, rather than calling yellow/green.....lime green or green gold....it is better to call it yellow/green. That automatically informs you of what colors to mix to achieve lime green.

Of course, there are variations of intensity of all these colors that can be changed by adding white or the direct complement. By focusing on just these simple basics, color mixing will become familiar and automatic. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Burn Off"

(unavailable......6" x 12".....Water Soluble Oils on 300 lb. HP)

"Clouds burn off with time." Many mornings begin with an overcast sky, but within a few hours, all is well and the sun comes out. The same is true in life.  Circumstances get us down, but as we change our focus, all is well again.

This is my second experimental piece in a 6" x 12" size. You are simply seeing my practice pieces until I get one that passes my inspection. It's really quite a fun exercise. The practice of how to mix and lay down the paint is invaluable and at the end of the day...there are several pieces to choose from.

Leana Fay was an established lettering artist and a mentor of mine. She has since passed away, but her influence still reverberates in my head. Even though she was an excellent lettering artist, she spent three days practicing the lettering for a particular piece before committing it to the final piece. With my experience in piano and mentors like Leana Fay, I have learned that it is futile to think any of us will paint that one perfect piece. More often than not, it is the practice of doing a lot of work that creates the best artwork. So I guess my encouragement is to create art consistently and frequently and you will be rewarded with pieces to choose from. There really is a tremendous satisfaction in this kind of process. 

Another key to successful artwork is learning to work with a limited palette.  I still see work that is "jarring" in the color harmony because the colors really are not that harmonious. It really is worth the effort to change course and quit trying to use the particular green, blue, yellow, etc that you want by squeezing it out of a tube. It is totally possible to have intense color that is pleasing to the viewer by using a double palette of the primaries.

More than one established oil painter has told me that and most are willing to share their preferred palette. If you want to succeed as a painter, you must learn to work with a limited palette. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.