I've been using a lot of neutral grounds lately, so for this one I decided to go a little WILD & CRAZY and use hot pink. I broke all my rules for it, but I think it turned out really cool. | |||
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I've been using a lot of neutral grounds lately, so for this one I decided to go a little WILD & CRAZY and use hot pink. I broke all my rules for it, but I think it turned out really cool. | |||
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Here is my last painting from Maine. We were at a huge lot full of (mostly) boats, but of course I zeroed in on this red truck. Cloudy again. Now I am itching to get outside again. | |||
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On the second morning painting in Maine the sun came out. We were thrilled, especially since all the reports called for more rain. I painted this little boat tied up in front of a dock. I really loved the little red lifesaver, and the light relfecting around inside the boat. I got a lot out of seeing Colin's references - seeing what he painted and how he painted it. One thing I saw him do on a cloudy afternoon was to lighten the values. I realized that while it is VERY important for all the values to be accurate, they only have to be accurate relative to each other. If you lighten everything a notch, they still relate and "read" if you will. So for this one I tried that just a little, which allowed me to play more with the colors. | |||
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So the day after the workshop in Maine last weekend, several of us got together to do some plein airing. Unfortunately the morning dawned gray gray gray. It drizzled a little, but the real problem was general lack of light. Or interesting light anyway. Now, I say that, and it sounds like an excuse and ... well, it is. I could have made more of it, but I didn't. This was my first painting: I was painting with Bobbi, Suzanne, Bruce and Colin (Page). The first three are friends, and Colin I met in person for the first time that day. It was VERY cool meeting him as I have been a big fan of his for years. He is a super cool guy - very kind and humble. Plus he's like 6'7" or something crazy like that and doesn't wear shoes. One can't help but like him! | |||
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I had my husband look at this painting and he said "the tomato is courting the fork" (the fork is in the cup). So I figured the fork is Juliet and is calling down to her tomato Romeo. Or is that too cutsie? : ) Below are my demos from the Maine workshop. Tomorrow I will post photos from my 2 days of painting in Maine after the workshop. | |||
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I am home from Maine as of an hour ago and am going to post before I collapse. The workshop was held in a kids french immersion school. It was really the perfect spot - plenty of light, and the tables were all the perfect height for still lifes ... The chairs were a bit small, but very colorful and perfect for demo-watching ... Here are a few of my kids working away. This one in front was pretty surly a few times (just kidding, Kitty!), but the rest were fairly well-behaved. : ) We partied every night (even though I swear the wine glasses they gave me always seemed to have holes in the bottom), hence almost no posting last week. Below are my kids (and me in my new red jacket from LLBean). | |||
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I am finished up with my workshop in Maine, but I am still here ... with the plan to paint for a couple of days with friends. And we will ... if we don't get rained out!! The forecast is rain for the next 3 days - argh! I will report on this and the workshop very soon. | |||
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I'm having trouble again with the image - argh! - so if you would please visit my blog for today's post. I'm off tomorrow for Maine but will post again soon. | |||
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It took me a long time to figure out the usefulness of gray, and then more time to figure out how to make it. Gray is useful because it allows the other colors to sing. You make it - well, there are lots of ways, but my way is to mix blue, red and yellow, and generally white. This way you end up getting a large variety of grays, which is more interesting in my opinion. That versus mixing just black and white or burnt umber, ultramarine and white, or gray straight from a tube. | |||
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