Still in a Sling and Still Taking Notes...

Just finished this book - pretty much all about color, contrasting & harmonious. Not too much new in it, but still it was a good refresher, reminding me that I rarely think about changing the colors that I see...

For instance, in the chapter entitled: Energize Your Paintings with Contrasts and Complements, Janice Gennaway says, "Like emotions, colors are a reflection of life." Connie Zekas BAiley says, "Color brings excitement to a painting, whether pure and bold or through gradation. Courage to change the color of what I see to what I WANT to see enables me to aim for a bold, colorful, sparkling statement."

Here is one of Connie's paintings illustrating the colors she WANTED in the white areas of the cat and in the background.

In Splash 15, Joyce Hicks makes a big point about changing the scene to say what you want to say with your painting. Here are a few photos from that book to illustrate that point.

Here you can see more about reflected color in a different cat!

Here are a few other examples concerning the use of color in our paintings. First, making connections with color. The artists used the complementary color of lavender/purple to connect her primarily warm floral composition.

Below, the artist used both geometric forms in the background and softened complementary colors to create a wonderful composition with the humble cows as her subject matter.

Here is an example of analogous colors (3 colors next to one another on the color wheel) and how to use them effectively (with the use of one complementary color - opposite the analogous colors on the color wheel).

And, of course, there are monochromatic colors that work extremely well for creating mood and atmosphere, as shown in the paintings below:

Above, the artist is creating the feeling of HEAT with the use of various shades of yellow.
Below, the artist is creating the mood felt at sunset, when the world is calming down. He's using the same yellow tones, but dimmed with a lot more of of the complementary color to diffuse the power of the yellow as it stands alone.

So you see, one can learn by reading, exploring the art of others, listening to their reasons for what they have done, noting the composition and color selections and why they work successfully, or less so, depending upon the painting!

I believe I will pay a lot more attention now to what I really want to bring forward in my painting, rather than simply looking at my palette and choosing the colors that I see in what it is that I have chosen to paint. Color choices make a HUGE difference to all paintings!

Recovering Beautifully!

These past two weeks plus a few days has been a relatively quiet time for me - unless you count Facebook and the news. I've spent a great deal of time resting, as might be expected, some time in therapy as prescribed, but a nice amount of time perusing through some watercolor books that I purchased used prior to the surgery - so I'd have some inspiration to return to watercolor ASAP!

I bought three of the SPLASH series of watercolor books and went through each one taking down notes that I want to instill in my subconscious as well as consciousness. One thing that kept being stressed in many different ways is the act of disciplining oneself to DO ART. I used to be fairly disciplined - especially prior to semi-annual exhibits in which I participated for 15 or so years in upstate Pennsylvania.

When we moved to New Jersey, back in 1990, I was immediately faced with the fact that my watercolors were primarily country themed, appropriate to upstate PA. Not so appropriate to the NJ suburbs between NYC and Philly! Seascapes were popular there, of course, as well as many different styles of modern art. So I chose to go modern in a different media - fiber art. Thus the next 15+ years were spent working with fiber art creating wall pieces for home, office, business. Mind you, fiber art really does not sell all that well yet it takes much more time, effort, equipment, and fabric/yarn/threads/batting/backing and so much more to create.

So when it came time to retire, we both leaned towards returning to Pennsylvania to a quieter life-style, country living, less stressful driving, plus the benefit of being near one of our children as we age. We now live in central PA near Penn State University so we have the best of two worlds - country living but wonderful educational and arts events that match well enough to city living for our tastes.

With my shoulder deteriorating rapidly, it was also a time when I had to give up drawing with the sewing machine on fabric - a beloved pass time and an integral part of my fiber art creations. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I've also been doing bird portraits in acrylics on canvas - a fun thing for a niche market, to be sure. But my love of the transparent watercolor media remains part of my essence. I've only dabbled in it during the past 2-3 years or so, instead focusing primarily on the bird portraits, since they are popular in this area.

It remains to be seen where I will go with all of this - suffice it to say that I want to work in watercolor but my fears get in the way. I've been disappointed with my efforts so far, partly because I know how well I USED to paint and I also know what I'd LIKE to paint. And my recent efforts do not match either of those expectations.

So it is that self-discipline must be my driving force if I truly want to paint in watercolor. Yes, the new paints, brushes, papers, and techniques now used in watercolor are quite different from what I'm accustomed to. But that is also exciting with all the new possibilities. I certainly do NOT want to paint the same old way I did back in the 1980's. They were nice enough - realistic and precise, but totally lacking much in the way of my feeling for the subject matter. They were fairly accurate representations of what I was seeing, but they did not reflect anything profound about of my love of nature, animals, birds, etc. Anyone can paint pretty pictures if they practice long enough. I want to paint beautiful images that combine what I see with my spirit's connection to what I am painting. I have done a few pieces - mostly back in the 1980's - that were moving in this direction. I have a sense of where I will be going when I begin painting again more seriously.

Meanwhile, I'm reading other watercolor books, filling my mind with something other than politics - something to nurture my soul, my art, my personal life. We all need to nurture ourselves to move forward in our own lives, particularly now in a time of challenges, division, and even crisis. Some of us will opening resist. Others will balance out the movers and doers with the arts and contemplative spirituality. And some of us will do both.

Off to more reading, thinking, writing, planning, and so much more...

Getting Ready for Surgery...

In our efforts to make things as smooth as possible, especially for Frank, while I'm laid up recovering, we are doing all sorts of odd things. Today, Frank picked up a month's worth of dog food for Spunky, plus her allergy meds, from the vet. Spunky has chronic pancreatitis and is on a strict diet necessitating food from the vet. Having it on hand so Frank doesn't need to run any unnecessary errands while caring for me makes things a tad easier for him.

I also went on-line to order some odd products that are hard to find in our local stores. Some of it is dog medication, some of it is for us. I also ordered a few historical fiction novels for reading when I'm stuck in a chair with a sling for 3+ weeks. And, I couldn't resist ordering some watercolor books, while I was at it. The SPLASH series of watercolors is terrific for bringing to the pubic wonderful watercolorists who are developing a new or unusual style/supplies/etc. They encourage others to experiment with new media, new styles, new approaches, new compositions or subject matter from different perspectives. I ordered SPLASH 2; 5, 15 & 16 - mostly used, but in good condition. The books are edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf. You can find a list of her books here.

I've been squirreling away novels for a few months, ever since I finally decided to have this surgery. So now I have a large selection from which to choose my reading material - from Reader's Digest shorties to serious WWII novels to southern US historical novels to light hearted romances. I'm discovering that my right hand is not liking so much time on the computer...or my iPad. So I won't be doing to much of either - despite my desire to stay informed! My right hand is my painting hand and I value it highly. Risk taking is silly, at my age anyway.

And I've already make appointments with my physical therapist, who will be coming to our home twice a week for 3 months to get my new joint and atrophied muscles back in good working order. It would have been good had I been informed 10 years ago that my problem was not simply aging and arthritis, but a totally degenerated bone that would do nothing but continue to cause problems - which arthritis also does, I realize. However, the total reverse shoulder replacement surgery was only initially used starting about 5 years ago - and my doctor says the recovery time is much less and that all pain will cease with this surgery (after the recovery period, of course).

And now you know more than you wanted to, right? It LOOKS like it will be ghastly and painful. And, I suspect, it will be both those first weeks. Inserting foreign objects into the body is not a happy adjustment for said body. But I trust my surgeon and Spirit.

All will be what it will be.