Color

I’ve been thinking a lot about color this week. Normally, I work from photographs (my own, of course!), but right now I have a Celtic knot work piece on my drawing board. When I work with photos in a realistic style, the colors are pretty much set—I only have to interpret them. Granted, once in a while I take a little ‘artistic license’ and veer off on my own a bit. But this time, there are no photos; this piece is purely from my imagination, so it’s up to me to choose the color palette. I’ve found this to be one of the most difficult challenges I’ve faced in a while. Why? Why should it be so difficult to set a color scheme? For me, I think it’s because I love color! There are too many choices, so decisions had me paralyzed for a few days! LOL! I finally chose a palette for this piece, but since I had such a tough time with it, this will most likely end up as a series instead of only one!


If one says "Red" – the name of color – and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different. (Josef Albers)


That is a really interesting quote to me—I happen to think that it is ‘spot on’! Just like everything else in life, it all boils down to experience. Colors evoke memories in us. Some have good connotations to us, some bad, and some neutral. How do those colors make us feel about a piece of art? How often are we drawn to a specific piece not because of excellence of execution or interesting subject matter, but purely by the colors?


I’m going to try an experiment this week: I’m going to ask a few people to head to the paint dept. of their favorite store and pick out one red, one blue, and one yellow paint chip. I’m going to collect them all, compare them and then ask everyone why they chose the particular shade that they chose.


I’d love to hear your thoughts on color. Please feel free to comment!

Sparrow

This is a small piece I did for the monthly challenge on Studio Atelier http://www.studioatelier.blogspot.com
Check out the site and join in! Lots of fun, challenges, and learning!

This is Prismacolors on Canson Artagain black paper. size. 4 X 6

Music and Creativity

No images to post today, . . . just some rambling thoughts!


How does music affect our creativity? Does it inspire us to create? Does it set a ‘mood’ for us? Do we choose music that enhances the mood we’re trying to create?


For me, it’s all of the above and more sometimes! At times, when I’m in the mood to brainstorm for ideas, I sit down with a friend and we listen to different genres of music and we watch music videos to get some visual stimulation. Then we begin! We fire ideas back and forth and write down ideas that we think we want to pursue further. Sometimes a piece will come from these sessions and sometimes not, but always it adds to our visual bank accounts and will eventually show up somewhere.


Then there are the times that I have a piece already begun and I want some music in the background as I work. If I’m working on a difficult piece, I’ll choose something instrumental so that I can concentrate on the work. If I’m working on a fairly easy section, I’ll choose something that inspires me with the lyrics—something I can sing along to. A Celtic inspired piece requires Celtic music; a ‘darker’ piece, I’ll choose music that relates to that kind of a mood.


My friend wondered aloud a couple of weeks ago, . . . ‘do you suppose that the music we listen to while we create an art piece somehow embeds itself into the paint?’ Hmmm, . . . I’m sure that it does—as I put myself on the paper, the music comes along for the ride!

Primary and Secondary Crayons

Here are the companion pieces to the larger multi-crayon piece called "Potential". These are smaller. Each one is 4 X 6. All are done on Canson Artagain paper with Prismacolor pencils. I have one more idea to finish up the crayon series, but need to take a short break from them to work on a piece for an upcoming show.

Update "Potential"

Here is an update on my work this week on Potential. I have procrastinated and gotten off track way too many times this week. I have had the upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations on my mind after the Saints win last weekend, so I stopped to work on a Mardi Gras card for a friend. I'm also not finished with that--I will post that when it's finished as well.

Check out Teresa Mallen's blog http://teresamallenstudio.blogspot.com/2010/01/dare-we-discuss_29.html for a discussion of artistic procrastination!

"Potential" Work in Progress

I never met a color I didn't like. (Dale Chihuly)

Unfortunately, once again, it's been a very busy week and I didn't get quite as much completed as I planned!

Here is the beginning of what I'm titling "Potential".

Art, Another Beginning

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

And so it goes, . . . beginning again. Sometimes the Universe has a way of intruding into our best laid plans. In the past year I have done a little more work, I have entered some pieces into local shows. I won a 2nd place for the vampire piece entitled, “The Watcher”. I had a colored pencil piece, “On the Haunted Trail” and a photo, “Afraid” accepted into a juried show. “Afraid” won 3rd place. So, even with some setbacks, I have also made some forward progress. Hopefully I am back now and will be keeping up with my blog and with readers as well.

I will get back to the piece in progress of my daughter’s family, but for now I am inspired by childhood. Remember getting a brand new box of crayons at the beginning of a new school year?

I love the smell of crayons, the look of them; shiny, brand new, untouched; just a bundle of infinite possibility sitting there, waiting, . . . this is where I will begin again, . . . at the beginning! I will try to show you the process and the progress as I go along.

For now, I leave you with another quote:
For a sailor to sail around the world, the thought is just, sometimes, too much. Thus, one simply goes from port to port in the same direction. (Hal Moore)