In the morning, we made a color wheel, confirmed what complementary and analogous colors were, made different values of the primary hues, painted a tiny piece of monochrome painting, (mine was a tiny pumpkin, but I wanted to make it purple), and recreated a tiny section of a painting from a book.
Weaving, Trying to Make Sense of my Time at the Bottom of this Planet, Occasionally Tending our Sisyphaen Patch
by the Goddess of Procrastination and Expert Forgetter
Saturday, August 9, 2008
You Want ME to Do WHAT???
I signed up for three one-day workshops on colors; the first one was today, taught by Rose Shepherd, a popular Nelson painter/teacher. (And Ben's workmate Scott's Mum; I'm really getting used to these small-town degrees-of-separation.) I don't know what I was expecting, but I never expected to paint pictures, let alone in public, but we had to, and I did, for the first time in over 35 years. Thank goodness for the weekly figure drawing class, at least I didn't dither too long.
In the morning, we made a color wheel, confirmed what complementary and analogous colors were, made different values of the primary hues, painted a tiny piece of monochrome painting, (mine was a tiny pumpkin, but I wanted to make it purple), and recreated a tiny section of a painting from a book.
Rose brought about 50 art books. All my classmates were painters (some professional, meaning, they make a living from painting!!) and they all grabbed their favorites. I picked Egon Schiele, one of the forlorn leftovers on the floor. You know I like pretty things and happy art, so I don't need to tell you he's one of my long time "YUCK!!" lister, but I was absolutely taken by his colors for the first time. So I worked with two of his paintings.
I chose "Mother and Child" (1914) for my first, small recreation. I found the browns and the yellows too distracting, (and the expression of the mother disconcerting,) so I covered the whole page with a tiny window showing a narrow section. We only had 45 minutes for this task, and I was just getting started when everybody left for lunch. I saw so many colors in the child's red dress I could have gazed at it all day.
In the afternoon, we had the choice of painting still life, or working off of a book, and I chose a second Schiele, "Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Seated", 1918. Because I can't draw shapes, and I didn't want to waste time on worrying about shapes, I flipped it sideways and worked in this orientation. The more I looked, the more colors I found underneath the surface colors, so I felt I was working backwards, piling up colors I thought I saw below. In the end I ran out of time, and slapped on the lovely purples I had prepared first, but it will take me at least another day to finish this one. And that original painting must weight a ton.
Who would have thought I would ever show my paint concoction to any other living being!! But neither effort is finished, so I don't mind. Isn't that strange; am I becoming shameless in my old age? And I learned a few things, too: I now know how to make brown paint from primary colors+black+white; a particular green I like is not yellow+blue, but yellow+black!! And I learned that a lot of people find mixing purples difficult; not just me. Phew.
In the morning, we made a color wheel, confirmed what complementary and analogous colors were, made different values of the primary hues, painted a tiny piece of monochrome painting, (mine was a tiny pumpkin, but I wanted to make it purple), and recreated a tiny section of a painting from a book.
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What a wonderful experience! I had not thought about it but yes, I too find it difficult to get good purples. Or at least purples that I like. Strange--it shouldn't be that hard! Anybody have any explanations?
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought it was because I was fussy about purples, but Rose said a lot of people feel it's not an easy one to get right, and though she most often gets only primary colors, ready-made purples are something she splurges on. Also, if you paint, she recommended trying to use dark purple instead of black in places for more nuance.
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