Monday, November 5, 2012

E is for Effects

Foggy Day
One of the things I most enjoy about my life as an artist is looking at the work of other painters. I had some work in our annual Festival of the Arts this summer. The weather was horrible, which meant that I had lots of time to wander the show and really study the paintings that appealed to me. One of the things that really struck me was the use of fabulous and fascinating textures as backgrounds for images. How do they do that?

I asked. When I saw a painting that impressed me, it was not hard to strike up a conversation with the artist - to offer compliments, and ask questions. One artist in particular was especially gracious - and shared some of her secrets to her luminous colors and awesome textures. So, I went home to play.

The more I experiment, with solvents, with sprays, with laying textured materials on the canvas and painting over, with scraping, scratching and pouring, the more fun I have, and the more interesting the results. Suddenly the central image takes a back seat to the feeling of the whole, created by messing around until I get the effect I am looking for. This image, Foggy Day, is 9x12, a mixture of mediums on canvas, was completely fun to create ...

So, I knew my kid students would love to create their own effects as well. (This process is too messy for my more finicky seniors). I provided bottles of thinned paints, sponges, brushes, and water color paper, as well as pans for letting paint drip into - and everyone poured paint until they "saw a picture." Then, there were crayons and markers for enhancing anything that popped out.  It was a great lesson in color, contrast and creativity.



4 comments:

  1. Your work is wonderfully textural and full of the feeling of a foggy day. And your student's (or your inspiration?) piece is just shimmering with movement and color!
    I feel like trying that process myself, to loosen up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Judy - this is about loosening up - throw some paint around and see what appears. I do similar things with line doodles such as the one I showed yesterday - and I have another project I will describe on the I day. You are correct that the second painting is my inspiring sample.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Years ago I went to an art show like that and had the time to get lost in the art. I was overcome by a mosaic artist who didn't use grout but instead glued the pieces onto mirror. I knew at that moment that I'd found something I wanted to try. I don't think until that time I'd really understood that I didn't have to use each art medium in exactly the same way that the books told me I did. What a great time you must have teaching people to loosen up and play with color. Sounds wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Long before I taught art, I taught creative thinking skills to gifted kids. The bottom line, break the rules, think outside the box, do it your own way. I love the idea of bottles on a tree ... and, having looked at your blog today ... my home is now my gallery. I love that I FINALLY have given myself permission to show my art. Thanks for joining my site

    ReplyDelete