Blue On Blue, Or Not

It feels really good to be excited about painting again. This is a picture that I did a while ago and I have a mind to re-work it some. There is an opportunity for me to put a painting in a competition and the subject was "blue" and this is my only true blue painting. I got it out I looked at it carefully. It had always been the poor sad step sister of the original version (below).

I worked a lot in series when I did watercolors and had applied this technique to this subject. Its a way of exploring the subject matter further. Alas, I was never quite content with the results of the blue version (top photo). Tonight when I took it out and looked at it, it seemed clearer what was needed. Though the color schema is blue, the monochrome, oddly, is not really center stage. Contrarily, it needs a little more of other colors in it to make the blue stand out. So I'm going to glaze/rework the band box so that the wood tones are yellower. Yellow and blue play well together. I'm also going to work the background a little more (yellow/blues?) so that the corners have a little more color to them and the box sits better in its space. Then I'm going to tweak the blue shells so they are more dynamic, perhaps work in other hues of blue. Right now they seem like all one note. It doesn't look bad that way, but it is confusing in an odd way I haven't quite put my finger on. I was taught that if you get the urge to work and re-work a particular area, don't. Work on the areas next to it instead. So, my starting point will be adding some yellows, redefining the bandbox and the background and then see how it looks. Maybe the shells won't need any re-working. Maybe the added yellow will do the painting for me.

Here I am AGAIN working on the same picture. That's a good thing, by the way. It shows energy and motivation, something that's not always there. I've been watching inspirational U-tube videos - Wayne Dyer to be exact and it is interesting how well that gets me reved up to work again. I think his point is that spirit leads us. Another point that he mentions but doesn't stress is that we don't always know where we are going or how we are going to get there. As an artist it is easy to lose heart, to give up. You need faith to keep going. It's not a “go to church on Sunday” kind of faith. It's a deep connection to the subject matter and trust in the Universe that what you are doing as an artist is intrinsically meaningful, whether anyone else ever sees it hanging in a museum or not.

The Holidays are behind me and I am re-dedicating myself to painting projects. Whoo-hooo! The above photos are before and after of work I have done. It may be hard to tell exactly. So if you can't tell, I've been punching up the shadows and the cracks between the pebble, adding glazes and trying to give a greater sense of volume and roundness to each pebble. The upper picture is before - you can tell it is greyer and the shadows on some rocks are not as well blended or worked. The feather is greyer also. In the most recent version (bottom photo) you can tell that the feather is white now and the pebbles have more shape to them. It is good to look at this in this small scale because I can see better where the areas are that need more work. For example, the round grey rock on the bottom left beneath the feather looks like a flat disk, which it kind of is, but not quite that much. For the time being I have to let it all dry some - don't like sticky paint!

I've been really BAD (like those shouty capitals) about posting blog entries. It seems I have the most energy at the start of the day, but the lease amount of time. I have more time at the end of the day, but I'm too tired. I really must figure this out!

I have been painting shells again (among other things, see other blogs). Below is a piece I've been working on off and on. The photo posted is none too good - dark morning, but you get the drift. I am drawn to "rondo's" lately, the containment appeals to me and the way the eye moves around. You are forced to focus and examine the items in the circle, find the connection, and move around some more. In a rectangular painting the items have to have their own pull, either through color or shape. In a rondo, the edge of the circle does the job for you. Cool! I can be as bad a designer as I want to be and the edge still moves you around the picture. The circle also acts as its own center of interest, another plus. You don't have to pick and choose and find a focal point if you're not sure of the concept, the circle does it for you.

So, now all I need are more round containers. Must have interesting edges, but not too difficult.

Shell Games: The Exhibit

I'm so excited! A show of many of my paintins all together. And they look awesome!

You may not be able to tell, but I have reworked this. I added a darker shadow around the shell and at the outside corners. I am trying to make the shell "pop" more and catch your attention. I was also thinking about depth. I wanted the shell to be sunken into the sand a more and there to be a little ridge of sand around it. I also lightened the middle of the shell to give the shell itself more depth, so the center will come towards you. I also added some more darkness right at the edge of the shell. I tried to avoid making look like it was outlined, so I made it intermittent. Usually the place where an object sits on a surface has a thin dark area right at the edge between the object and the surface.

When a painting gets down to the finer details, the changes aren't all that dramatic, but the tweaking ultimately affects the whole quite a bit. It is at this point that I use some glazing medium, usually Liquin or Medium No. 2 (8 parts odorless thinner, 1 part damar varnish, 1 part stand oil). This extra transparent glazed layer is crucial to how the light refracts and resonates. However, once it is used, any brush strokes added later without medium, will look dull and chalky and need some additional glazing on top. So essentially, if your pretty certain of the painting, go ahead and add some glazing to give it some more depth or to shift a color hue in another direction.

It is now time to let the picture sit and "percolate",  and me regain a fresher eye, before I work on it again. It is by no means done. There is a shell at the bottom right that looks like a wad of kleenex tissue!

I've returned to painting shells recently and started a piece with a sand dollar in the center. See below. It is unfinished, but I'm liking it. The colors aren't quite as yellow as in the snapshot and there is more contrast.  It's a little on the "pretty" side. Hmmmmm. Maybe I have a pretty side, lurking.