"On The Wayside"

($125.00.......6" x 6"......Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord.....Presented in a Custom Frame)

"Beauty is often found on the wayside." The wayside refers to the land immediately adjacent to a road, highway, path, etc. The reference for this painting came from the wayside near Santa Fe. This type of brush with the pretty yellow flowers is everywhere and the color of it is quite lovely. Don't always look in the obvious places for beauty, but check out the wayside.

There is nothing like painting trees and weeds to give you an experience with lines and their direction. Yesterday's posting was abstract, but the reference of marble with all of its lines was simply a different type of line work. There are actually several types of lines. There are long and short lines...thick and thin...solid and broken...straight and curved...uniform and irregular...vertical and horizontal.

When analyzing the type of line work you see in other artist's work or even in your own, it is good to accurately describe what you're seeing in your analysis. If you can describe it in any of these ways, you will more likely be able to incorporate it in your own work. Learning to analyze what you see is a skill that will help you learn design more than any other way besides doing it over and over again. The problem is that you need to know what you're doing because accidentally creating a well designed piece is not a very efficient strategy.

As you hone your own analytical skills, you will soon discover that many of those design things you observed will be cropping up in your own work. It is really quite fun to dissect a piece of artwork by taking each element of design (line, color, shape, value, direction, texture, size) and describe in detail how each is used in a particular work. 

Frankly, it is a shortcut to learning design because you are observing something that's already done rather than trying to incorporate things you don't understand in your own work. Why not "cut to the chase" and see it in someone else's piece first. For instance, if I tell you that one of the color contrasts that is the most effective is the use of a direct complementary scheme....will you understand it better by reading what it is or will you understand it better by seeing it in a particular work? And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Unexpected"

($50.00......6" x 6"....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Unexpected places and events yield gold." Gold seems to have the highest rank in precious metals. And so it is with places and events that happen and often without much fanfare. The value is often realized after the place or event has come and gone.

This photo reference for this piece was taken in Santa Fe as I turned the corner to visit Sage Gallery. It was very unexpected and a soothing and pleasing setting. That must be why adobe and sage looking plants pair up so well together. I feel like talking about color once again since I am often asked how to go about mixing colors. And again, the best way I know to learn color is to work with a limited palette (a warm and a cool of each primary and white) If you have those colors in place, you will be able to mix any other color you see.

The other important thing is to know the three attributes of color which are hue, value, and intensity. So the very first thing is to identify the root color. It will be one of the (12) colors on the color wheel. After identifying the root color and mixing that color...determine its intensity. If it less intense than what you mixed, then knock down the intensity by adding a bit of the complementary color. After that, determine the value and add white to lighten or more of the root color with a lot more of the complementary to darken the color depending on the value. 

The only thing left to do is to paint and practice identifying the root color and then mixing it and adjusting the value and intensity. Mixing up endless color charts can be laborious and may help initially, but eventually, it is best to just paint and practice. In this piece the root color of the adobe wall is orange, but not an intense orange. I knocked down the intensity with ultramarine blue (the complement of orange) and then added a lot of white. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.