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Orchids Positive



Orchids Negative



Stats: 2 10x8x3/4 oil on canvas
Playlist: See previous post
Beverage: Dark and stormy

These two follow the previous two positive and negative tulip paintings from my previous post. The same theory applies - the negative images uses all complementary colors. Again, let me know where to go from here! I got some great feedback from the Open Studio, which I will post next time, but I always look for more.

On a side note, I like this composition better than the tulips, and the flowers lasted a lot longer. I am going to have to raise my prices to be able to comfortably afford to paint orchids from now on. They are lovely.

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Tulips Positive



Tulilps Negative



Stats: 10x8x3/4 oil on canvas
Playlist: Newly downloaded - Vorspiel, The Planets - Jupiter, Lever du Jour, Lux Aeterna (from Requiem for a Dream), I Believe, Lake Michigan (da lake), Love in Vain, October, Feeling Good (Nina Simone), Heart Skipped a Beat, Intro, Heart of Hearts, Electric Feel
Beverage: Water

In preparation for my Open Studio I did some crash painting. I love these two sets of pieces. This and my next post focus on something I am going to delve more into over the next few months. Rather than think so much about making my paintings interesting from an academic standpoint, I decided to stick to my preferred technique but make my theme academically interesting.

If you can guess what that theme is you get bonus points. Comment and let me know if you did - I'll work out some sort of prize mechanism. Honor system applies.

I love color. Why deny it? So I took one painting of the positive image of some tulips I picked up across the street, then flipped it and did the second piece in negative. It's like the positive and negative image of a photograph. In the positive image I stayed true to the original colors. In the negative image I used the same palette but literally flipped each color to its exact complementary color. Blue became orange, red became green, yellow highlights of "light" turned into light purple highlights.

Painting it felt like doing sudoku for a color-obsessed person. What do you think? Any suggestions on how I can take this type of theme deeper?

Carmenere

Piece: Carmenere Series 1-4. Four 12x12x1.5 in oil on canvas.
Playlist: variable
Beverage: Carmenere

I have finished, and finally photographed, the first four pieces of my Barcelona antique tile series. To be honest I can't remember what music I listened to while painting, or whether the wine was a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot. Even so, it was a fun little project.

I took the designs from four single tiles, out of four different motifs, and reincarnated them on canvas with shading and brushstrokes and such. The designs come from late 19th/early 20th century Barcelona. Reworking them in brushstrokes was an interesting challenge. I started by prepping the surfaces, making sure to mix the background layer with the first thin layer of paint so that it has more dimension and age. I drew the designs first on paper in colored pencil to get the design and the proportions correct. Then I drew the basic proportions with charcoal on canvas. Finally, I mixed the colors and put paintbrush to canvas. I added in shading to give them some more dimension, and to make them look like something other than just tiles.

The two most valuable parts of this exercise were color mixing and design-drawing. I have definitely come to believe that using less charcoal is better, since it's annoying to clean up after! And as for color mixing, this was the most important part of this series for me. The colors used in the antique tiles are very unique, and the play between them is rather unusual. That is why I put these four very different tiles together, and chose them in the first place. I am looking forward to taking some of these colors to some new abstract and abstracted architecture pieces I'm working on.

TBD whether I will do more of these. I seem to have other, more appealing ideas lately, and much less time.

Canvas Talks

You may be wondering what in the world that splash of color is on the title of this webpage. That is my first serious venture into the world of abstract art. A friend commissioned me for this piece, and her only instructions were: 24x48 inch oil on canvas with bright colors, primarily red and yellow, that doesn't resemble anything. Voila!

Were it not for a chance encounter with Sam Gilliam on the first sunny spring day of 2009 I would not have known where to start. But after visiting his friend's studio and watching them work on a Smithsonian commission I felt prepared. He taught me that abstract is an extension of the painting and drawing basics, not a simplified version of them. He also taught me that color and composition are king. With that in mind, I paid very strict attention to planning every color mixture and knife-stroke in advance, and followed my plan exactly. This was a large departure from my typical painting method: 2 hours, palette knife, good playlist, glass of wine, done.

Knowing that I wanted a yellow background, I started with a purple wash so that the yellow would pop. I mixed it with earth tones and highlighted it with transparent gold. Instead of going straight for red I added a layer of its complementary color, dark green. Then came the red. I made sure to mix it into the green layer a bit to avoid crayola syndrome. The background to the bright colors is dark purple again, then in the final layer I stopped adding earth tones. Instead, when mixing the highlights, I began using white to pop it. I finished the center colors before the yellow/orange hue that appears almost like an aura around them. That hue was part of my plan but I had been nervous to put it in before adding the colors. The painting was missing something, though. I took a deep breath and thought "well, if it doesn't work, I'll paint over it."

The end result: Depth, thanks to alternating warm and cool colors, and mixing in earth tones. Composition, thanks to an off-center vertical spike. Light, thanks not to dabbing white here and there, but using warmer, yellow, reflective light and shadow. Lesson learned: Follow the plan, breathe, and listen to the canvas.

Does it look like anything? That's up to you to decide.

Drink: Dark and Stormy
Playlist: Naomi's - from DC: The Movie production