Painting Color Spots Helps Me Mix Colors!

A couple of years ago, after a spate of moving, selling, renting, and buying houses, I ended up with a fistful of decorator's paint color samples from the hardware store. I starting using them to help me figure out the elusive colors needed in portraits and for unlit atmospheric passages in still lifes. Once I found what looked like a match, I would paint color spots directly on the paint chips to see which pigments I would need to get the colors in the subjects. Since then I have painted many such color spot sequences as I enjoy the challenge and pick chips that look hard to mix. Although it's a self-explanatory process, you might enjoy watching this video I made about painting color spots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AqvgPoPm2w.

 

Finally--An Extra-Tall Lightweight Easel!

I must confess to preferring lightweight aluminum easels over heavier wood ones for my plein air work and travel. Admittedly they break fairly quickly as the pile of easel body parts in my studio would attest to. Still I find their ease of use and portability worth the periodic need for replacement. Much to my delight, I just discovered one such easel that comes in sizes! This gives the option to get an "X-Large" 80-inch tall easel (compare this easel to the height of the front door!) that easily allows taller people to stand tall while painting. Look how tall this easel is compared to the height of the front door!

Here's the exact one I ordered: US Art Supply® Big Sur Aluminum Tripod Field & Display Easel (X-Large) 80 Inches Tall (1-EASEL)

A Tribute to Great Artists: CCAA Juried Show

‘A Tribute to Great Artists’ is the interesting concept behind the current art show (Nov. 6 – Dec. 4, 2014) at the Chester County Art Association (CCAA).  I valued this opportunity to pay homage to one of many artists who has helped me develop my own vision as a painter. Because the Pennsylvania still life tradition has always attracted me and influenced my style, for this show I chose to pay tribute to Martin Johnson Heade. Perhaps Heade is best known for his lovely paintings featuring orchids growing in the wild; however, he also painted southern magnolias resting on a table. It is these paintings in particular to which my show entries relate. 

What most comes to mind regarding the process of these two paintings is the sight I observed as I gathered the magnolias in early June. In the bowl formed by each gigantic magnolia petal was a mardi gras of tiny bees and wasps rolling and buzzing around in a golden powdery fluff of pollen and flower parts. I would love to ask Heade if he too witnessed this amazing sunny celebration in the petal bowls of the magnolias. He must have!

 

The theme of the CCAA show reminds me of the invaluable legacy of past masters and great artists of present day. Their work inspires and challenges us, it answers our questions and poses new ones for us to puzzle over. Perhaps our greatest tribute to these masters is to strive to be the best artists we possibly can be, keeping their legacy alive as we forge our way.