"Fuego de Colores"

($125.00.......8" x 10".....Water Soluble OIls on 2" Depth Cradled Gessobord)

Today you are looking at "Fire of Color" (translated from the Spanish title). It is a palette knife oil painting using lots of paint. It's designed to represent my South Texas roots and inspire you with bright color.

All of my abstract palette knife paintings have gestural writing included, but actual, readable text is no longer a consideration for these types of works. I am reserving my lettering to canvases, watercolor or other mixed media works.

Design considerations are still a factor here. The orange is taking up just a bit more space than the blue, but the orange being such an intense color is definitely taking center stage. And even though all of these colors appear very intense, they are all diluted to some degree. Color is diluted by adding black, white, gray, or some of the complementary color. The darkest color is actually a very dark green created by mixing Phtalo Blue (Red Shade), Ult. Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cad. Yellow Light. Yellow appears in all of the colors represented and this limited palette is why they all work together.

There is also a vast range of edges and line work going from totally blended to slightly blended and to a sharp edge. The writing also creates movement and energy along with some of the color shapes at slight diagonals.

The title was inspired by the flame looking shapes coming out of the orange. Integration was helped by allowing some of the base color (dark green) to be peeking through the entire piece. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Exposed Thoughts"

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"Words are exposed thoughts." Thoughts remain in our head until they are written or spoken. More often than not, they probably need to stay in our head. Once they are exposed, they offer up a blessing or a curse. Which will it be?

My approach to my collages has taken on a different twist. Yesterday, I made a concerted attempt to lay down all my text pages on a primed sheet of 300 lb. HP (painted with black gesso) and deliberately allow more of the black background to show. In that way, the positive (text pages) and negative(black background) spaces were my primary consideration. Next came a the plain rice paper and some stained with umber and titan buff as overlays over the text. At this point I dried the piece thoroughly, did some gestural writing in pencil and then cropped the whole sheet, paying attention to the positive and negative only.

Color was added (the same colors from the last two postings) with the addition of the sliver of orange which is a split complement of green and a direct complement of the blue/green. You can clearly see what a difference just one small bit of the complement makes. Yesterday, the color blocks occupied about 50% of the design space. Today, they occupy about a third of the design space. Going back and forth with varying color percentages and which color will dominate is part of my experimenting this week. To create more subtle interest, I also adhered more text to the piece...both opaque and transparent. And if you like only neutrals, you can stop after adhering all of the text and leave the color off completely. Another idea is to use maps, line drawings, gestural marks, pencil and ink drawings, or painted imagery instead of old book pages. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Text"

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"Text provides knowledge and texture." Many artists, especially lettering artists, are totally enamored with text. We write it, design with it, collage it, read it, etc. Text provides us with two things that are appealing...knowledge and texture.

This entire week of posting is devoted to a series dealing with color percentages. Yesterday, there was very little color except for white and black. And in the type of collages I am creating, the black painted on the 300 lb HP provides the support with areas left visible and the white is created with text overlaid with rice paper and sometimes left visible. These two things keep the pieces anchored. The color is then provided by mono printed the rice papers with Speedball Printing Ink or...in some cases, acrylic paint. 

My color palette began with some dark green and a bit of turquoise yesterday. Today, I am expanding that palette and bringing in a yellow-green. The common denominator in these three colors is green. All three are occupying approximately 50% of the design space. The addition of the yellow green contrasted with the blue-green and the dark green adds a bit of drama. And with the exception of the red mixed in with the green to create this dark green, there is no obvious presence of a strong direct complement yet.

These are very good things to experiment with to give yourself practice in seeing how to tone down or "pump up the volume" in a piece. It's a very casual grid like format and very easy to do. Echoing the colors as well as the black, white, and transparent overlays is also important. You can also play around with arranging these bits and pieces by making a tray out of foam core and play with the pieces while watching television or riding in a car. If you're working small, you can place your pieces in snack baggies and have something very transportable. It's all about design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Poderosos en Fortaleza"

($200.00.....12" x 12".....300 lb. HP mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"Praise the Lord, you His angels. You His mighty ones, who do His bidding, who obey His Word." (NIV) This is the last of three larger works created for an exhibit at Open Doors Gallery at Hill Country Bible Church. In another posting I referred to angels as the caretakers or caregivers of the world. That was inspiration for choosing this particular scripture.

Many artists have trouble with choosing a format, especially in a collage arrangement. The type of format I have chosen is a grid format. So when I am laying down papers, most of the first layers have straight edges. There are a few torn edges and overlapping shapes that create other shapes, but over all, you can see a grid formation, but it is not precisely measured or layed down in a precise manner. It was done very spontaneously.

My two main color selections were orange and blue, with blue having a slight edge over the orange in percentage of space it occupies.  If I had chosen to "tone" down the piece more, I could have allowed the blue or the orange to be obviously more dominant. By allowing them to occupy almost the same percentage of space, it becomes more dramatic. But of course, the black, gray, and white areas are dominant in this piece. 

In the next few weeks, I will be experimenting with strongly contrasting percentages to achieve all kinds of different looks. So when you look at an interior of a room with colors you love, pay very close attention to percentages and the amount of detail in a room. If you like clean contemporary rooms, you will want to cut a whole lot of the detail and have more translucent areas where text or imagery is barely visible and color areas have little or no detail. By choosing one kind of paper (such as rice paper) and mono printing them yourself, you can create more unity than you will get by grabbing just any old paper that's lying around. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Aspirations and Habits"

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"Aspirations live or die based on the habits we form." An aspiration is a strong desire to achieve a particular outcome. We all have them and the only way to achieve them is to form the habits that will insure the desired outcome.

The movement in this piece is very interesting and determined the placement of the additional collage pieces. The penciled lower case "a" and the lettering to the left center was done first on blank 140 lb HP. The pouring medium + fluid acrylic was done next and the the additional collage pieces were printed on silk tissue paper and adhered on top of the pour.

There are so many places where collage pieces can be placed, but it is best to pay close attention to what is going on in the pouring medium and the directional lines that flow from that. The black color block appears to ascend upward and around which made it obvious that the decorated capital needed to end up at the end of those diagonal lines of black. The black lettering adhered to the bottom was a nice final touch.

And even though this is only a 4" x 6"... there is interest and detail with some areas left alone. In summary, there are echoes of lettering in different sizes and styles. The color percentages are varied and in different shapes. The contemporary "nod" to the book arts is the main thing. Nothing was included that does not contribute to that theme. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Color Personality"

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"Blue and yellow have a joyous color personality." The infinite variety of color combinations can create all kinds of moods and personalities. Just choosing what colors to wear can influence the way you feel and move through your day.

My long standing advice about color selection for anyone who does not know what colors to choose is this..."Black and white plus one or two other colors works every time it's tried." The important thing is to vary the percentage of space that the colors occupy.

Often, when creating pouring medium pieces or any other spontaneous techniques, the color does not always land where you want. That was the case in this piece. The lower left hand corner was white after being cropped from a larger sheet. And I felt like it needed a bit of a power punch and a smaller echo of the blue and yellow so I made a color copy on silk tissue paper of a portion of my parent sheet of this pour. After it was adhered in place, it was totally integrated into the piece and provided the color echo and alternating effect I was looking for. I will freely admit that this works well if you are adhering the extra bit on top of a white or extremely light area, but will probably not work on top of darker colors.

The creating of most artwork requires this type of "trouble shooting". So it is imperative to gather as many techniques and tools in your toolbox to accomplish this type of thing. Very few pieces simply come together effortlessly. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Hand In Hand"

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"Good things and good habits go hand in hand." Close attention to daily habits will yield very good things in life.

The color selection in this piece has a bit of a retro feel. My inspiration came from a photo of an interior dining room with vintage fabrics. The entire room was designed based on that fabric. The important thing was to get the color percentages right. The walls in the room were painted this mint green and the blue, red, and brown / black were the accent colors. The stencil look in the "collaged" pattern and hand lettering also give a nod to that period of time in history.

The border at the bottom overlapped into the dark area which can be problematic...even with silk tissue paper because the transparency ends up looking translucent. I resolved the problem by brushing on some black charcoal powder in those dark areas. Soft pastels can also be used to match what ever color is needed.

This is a 4" x 6" piece created for a "give away" at an upcoming exhibit. Will post the details as the date gets closer. It is the evening of September 21st, if you want to mark your calendar. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"A Quest"

(125.00.....5" x 5"......mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel....floated on a linen mat in a custom frame.)

"A quest to know begins with a desire to listen." A quest means to seek something. To seek to know something requires that the seeker of the knowledge listen. But listening means infinitely more than auditory listening. It also means to act on what is read or heard.

The one other color in this piece besides black and white is Green Gold (Golden). It is one of my favorites not only because of its hue, but because it's transparent. It creates a bit of a glow and any lettering created with pencil in the first layer will show through if the pour is not too thick.

I broke up the surface tension of a large black shape by adding collage with a flourished overlay. The principle here is that any line work crossing over one or more shapes in a piece will integrate it to the previous layer, but only if the color of the previous layer is echoed.

Notice, also, that all of the corners are designed which keeps the eye from wandering out of the design space. And this piece was totally inspired by an interior room with only these colors. If you want drama, just try black and white plus one other color and the drama will be there. The only exception is if the color is too close in value to black or too light to contrast with white. Red is always a good option since red, white, and black have historically been a top choice for many illuminated manuscripts. It's also good to vary the percentages of each color to avoid monotony. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Pass It On!"

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"Share what you know and watch yourself grow." This quote is born out of my desire to teach. But even if you've never taught a structured class, each of us has a special gift(s) that needs to be passed on to others. So pass it on what you know!

This is a very compelling color combination. The orange color block is a combination of Pyrrole Orange and Burnt Sienna. The Burnt Sienna knocks down some of the intensity of the orange. The lime green is Green Gold (Golden) undiluted by any other color. And of course, the first layer of this pour was Titanium White over the entire sheet of paper which influenced the gradation of both color blocks and peeks through in various places.

The gestural quality of the black lines running through the orange and green were created with an energetic movement of a toothpick pulling the black out into the other color blocks. Pencil lines showing through the color also give energy with their underlying movement.

One other thing about percentages of color. In this piece, the orange and green are very close in the percentages they occupy with the green having a slight edge. When two color blocks are this close together in their size, the tension in the piece is much greater. It can be reduced by making one of those colors occupy a much greater area than the other. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Opportunity"

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"Opportunity unfolds each and every day." There is not a day that doesn't have at least one opportunity. It's up to us to seize the opportunities when they come.

This very dynamic pouring medium piece has two sets of direct complements, but the colors are in tones that are unexpected. The blue and orange are both "grayed down" colors with the blue trending towards gray. The red and green are not your typical red and green. The red is contrasted with a medium to dark turquoise. Black and white plus two sets of direct complements will always deliver a "power punch". The proportions are also a key factor in the way the colors are perceived. They are dynamic because of the shapes and the unequal space they occupy.

It was most fortunate to have the white show up in three areas of unequal proportion and providing the "bling" by punctuating the colors. And, of course, the black is framing the detail of the marbling effect with a large ornate "O" echoing the swirling lines of the other colors. The proportional distribution of the colors into unequal shapes and the "O" fitting so naturally into the black line and then one line of straight lettering is the essence of integration. Everything fits. Nothing needs to be added. Nothing needs to be taken away. There is harmony and contrast. And there you have it...a few more things to think about.  And just so you know....I did another piece this very morning that simply did not work, but I kept trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  I finally had the good sense enough to move on!  The moral of this story is to keep moving forward!

"Thoughtless Words"

($40.00....6" x 6".....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"Thoughtless words muddy relationships like black ink dropped into clear water." If you have ever said something in haste that hurt someone or someone has said something that hurt you, then the engulfing nature of this image completely mirrors what you might have been feeling. The good news is that the Bible has the proper response from Proverbs 3: 3..."Do not let kindness or truth leave you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart."

This image is a perfect example of a caution when using very dark colors with pouring medium. In this image, it covers about 75% of the design space. It is a bit disturbing, but mirrors the quote perfectly so I decided to let it stand. But under most circumstances, it would be better to have the white area take up 75% of the design space with the black taking up only 25%. Color is the most emotional and powerful design element. It is the one element that does more to set the mood of the piece than any other element.

However, if you use much lighter colors with only a touch of black, brown, or some other very dark color, it is possible to get by with more of the design space covered. It's quite an interesting phenomenon to observe how colors react alone or with other colors. One of the best ways to observe colors is by paying attention to the colors used in an interior room. There are many periodicals that have countless examples of different combinations. The secret is to use the same percentage of that color as what you see in the room or image. As we can see in  today's posting, the percentage of space a color occupies can affect the mood completely. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Red and Green"

($40.00....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)

"Red and green fuel the warm association of pleasant memories." Every year about this time, I have this urge to go buy a berry bush of some sort. Of course they promptly die when the Texas heat arrives, but they cause me to be in the Christmas spirit. You might want to try this experiment. Go anywhere where there are decorated Christmas trees, close your eyes, and then open them and see which color combination takes your breath away. It will most likely be red and green.

Direct complements deserve careful attention because they are so powerful. With red and green, it is important to pay attention to the percentage of each color used. Berry bushes are so eye catching because they have a hugh percentage of green sprinkled with bits of red. It is not as pleasing to have this reversed. And if the percentage is 50/50...it can be disturbing to view. It is fun to look through decorator magazines and pay attention to the percentages of the colors used and then try to duplicate those percentages in a piece of art.

Another thing I am trying to do in this piece is continue to practice with a Speedball C-4 nib. Yves Leterme thinks it is prudent to become proficient with this nib so I have been picking it up more frequently, but it is way out of my comfort zone. But to quote myself..."The learning curve is easier after realizing that all things are difficult before they are easy." My goal for next year is to include more expressive and gestural writing. (We'll see how that works out.) But for December, I would like to "kick it up a notch" with the pointed pen. It may be procrastination on my part, but what would Christmas be without all of that flourishing! Just something to think about.

"True Love" (unavailable)

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"True love is fierce and passionate through all the twists and turns of life." Today's posting is dedicated to my niece, Kim, on her wedding day. Early congratulations to her and Larry as they begin their life together. May the "true love" of my other viewers receive a new appreciation as you go about your day.

This is a very contemporary piece using some of the "hottest" color combinations in interior design. The obvious thing would have been to include hearts plus red, white, and black. So this is a great lesson in taking inventory of the different color combinations that have emerged this year and keep coming. It is not necessary to keep doing the obvious things.

One way to develop a piece from a well designed room is to select your favorite magazine with many images to choose from.  Before mixing your paint, make a note of the approximate percentages of space that each color occupies. Then use a very spontaneous technique of applying paint to paper using those same percentages. You will want to do it this way because it is not only the color that's appealing, but also the amount of color revealed that has captured your imagination.

In this piece, Liquitex Pouring Medium plus acrylic paint was used as a means to do the pour and create the shapes. Magenta Quinocridone was used in the background with the neutrals. The lettering was done with Windsor Newton Brilliant Red Violet. Just something to try or think about.