Sunday, April 27, 2014

Update - a 'touch' of color

The more I looked at the peach painting - which I am now calling "The Value of a Peach" - the more I knew that something was not right. I experimented a bit with it . . .thinking the 'touch' of color was more a slapped on glob of color which overwhelmed the gray values. I toned down the brightly colored peach.  The color is now sort of emerging as if it had been 'touched' by the color god and encouraged to ripen into peach fleshness.

before



 after


The original watercolor is currently hanging in our living room. I have now hung the B&W version next to it. (awaiting the hanging of the exhibit on Thursday) It's fun to see them side by side.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

The Pumpkin and the Peach

It has been a busy month - ARTfest (see my last post) is launched with all it's many pieces planned and ready to go: classes, workshops, FREE talks, art gallery, posters, brochures . . .and the list goes on.  The 2014 banners are now hanging on the poles along Talbot Street in St Michaels  - sigh - I finally have a little time to paint!

Next week the art league is exhibiting in the St Michaels Library gallery. The theme of this exhibit is "Black & White with a Touch of Color." My challenge to myself several years ago was to enter a painting in every exhibit that the art league sponsors. So, I have been thinking about what I wanted to paint - had lots of ideas, but just hadn't had a chance to do anything . . .time is running out. Oh my, I do need a deadline to get anything done these days.

I looked through lots of old photos and came up with a few things to try. My thinking was that this really is a value (black, shades of gray and white) study with a spot of color. I printed out several color photos as B&W studies. Interestingly, when they are printed in black & white only, you can really see the gray scale.

I chose this one first. I love painting the grandchildren, so knew that one of paintings had to be that subject. This is Leighton (now almost 13) at age 2 or 3. She had curly blond hair and her mother always put wonderful big bows on the girls when they were little. What I discovered in painting this is that it is VERY HARD for me to do this in just black, grays and white! I was dying to put in that blond hair and wonderful skin color and the color of that big bow!


Sorry about this photo - I do not know why this has such a yellowish cast to it  - it really is a black, white & gray pastel painting.

We can enter two paintings . . .so I then repainted a watercolor that I had done some time ago. I had always loved the way it turned out then. If you are interested, you can find the original painting posted July 29 2011. And, again I had a tough time NOT using color. This exhibit is quite a challenge for me!


Voila - a pumpkin and a peach!  The exhibit will be hanging for the month of May. Drop by and take a look if you are in the area!