"Settle In"

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"Fear flies away when thankfulness settles in." There is something about thankfulness that opens the door to many good things and gets rid of some bad things. The word "settle" is not a commonly used word, but it has a wonderful meaning. It means to become established in a place and thankfulness is a good place to get established.

This is the last in this particular color series. I began the week using blue/green and dark green plus white and black. Then there was the introduction of an orange complement followed by several other combinations. It is fun now to lay them all out and see how I feel about each one. Today's piece includes two sets of complements....orange and blue/green...red tint and dark green and yellow/green. I am still trying to discipline myself to identify colors by what is listed on the color wheel rather than using "trendy" names like magenta, chartreuse, hot pink, etc. My goal is to be intimately acquainted with the (12) colors on the color wheel in all of their intensities, shades, and tints.

Just to recap, my starting point in all of these collages has been black and white with the addition of color. From across the room, the division of space is strong and then there are many subtleties for close viewing. I have often read that judges of art shows look for strong division of space and good shapes which are quite identifiable from across the room. I am quite sure personal taste comes into play as well, but it is worth thinking about. Strong value contrast is essential for a piece to stand out from across the room, especially if it's a small piece. The challenge is to see if it can be done successfully.

The only danger I see in doing this type of collage work is entering into the world of visual overload. I've tried to overcome that by having many "echoes" in the piece. I will continue to play around with color percentages, but I will be interspersing some very neutral (like 80-90 per cent) in the next week or so. Doing small works is an excellent way to experiment with color, division of space, no detail or a lot of detail, etc. Give it try! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.