Beauty in the ordinary

-

Sometimes it is hard to find that perfect object to paint.
I started with what was at hand.
These are items from my kitchen in pen/ink and watercolor



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connected shadows

-
Image
I have often passed by the Campbell Community Center/Heritage Theater and been struck by the beautiful Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with intricate ornamentation. Finally, I had the opportunity to paint it today with the SCVWS Thursday plein air group. I think I should have used a ruler for this as some of my verticals aren't parallel to the edge of the paper! I do like the purple/blue shadows and how the colored shadows blend into one another around all the bright white areas. As always, for me, greens are troublesome - they often look overworked in my paintings. But, I am pleased with this overall.                       “One Ticket, Please”
Read more

Reversing the routine

-
Image
Typically, watercolor is painted in layers - lightest wash, then darker, then darkest darks. When I started watercolor, I had trouble breaking down the scene in layers and putting the lightest wash over everything (but whites). I couldn't see the scene that way. Now I can. It seems that when I've learned how to do that, something comes along to change it up! I took Tim Saternow's workshop last week. His basic MO is to do a value study ( grisaille ) under the color painting. The color is just tints - sometimes darker, but the value study shines through. And it is the value study, the very bones of the painting, that have to be strong for the painting to be strong, and to be carried. We started with the darkest darks - once those are laid down (as Charles Reid said: you then have your values set - darkest darks and lightest lights - white of paper - down first, everything else comes in between) the painting will never be weak. Tim said that in judging the 1200+ entries o...
Read more

Faith vs. belief, and inspiration

-
Image
In yesterday's Gita session, we discussed the difference between belief and faith. I found myself saying that a belief was hard-edged and inflexible, and faith all-encompassing and flexible and always positive - akin to having a big-picture trust in the cosmos. When I heard myself say "hard-edged," it made me realize how many terms and ideas are so interchangeable between the world of watercolor (art) and spirituality (life). When edges are hard, the eye stops at each edge before it goes to the next "item." It's like stop-and-go traffic. You are making progress but it is not smooth, not a flow. When edges are soft, your eyes travel easily, from one object to the next because the divisions between the objects are blurred, and the values do the talking. It is like life, like consciousness. We are all one - not so hard-edged and separate - yet we don't know it, and bump up against one another because of our hard edges, fixed ideas and notions, prejudices an...
Read more