Y is for Yellow

Red used to be my favorite color for my paintings. Cadmium red medium to be precise. But that is so yesterday. Today, I am in love with yellow - cadmium yellow is my new favorite. I buy it in the extra large tubes. I especially love the shades that I get when I add white to the mix. Pure sunshine.

Today's painting was done in my Dynamic Abstract class. The assignment involved a set of complicated instructions - including standing outside holding a flower in the sun to create a shadow and sketching that shape - repeating it, adding a prescribed number of lines and circles, and limiting to only one color with black and white. Lots of fun to do. Art projects may be the only time in my life where I enjoy being told what to do :-)

This is "18x"24, acrylic on canvas.

B is for Background

One of my greatest challenges is deciding how to begin a painting. Sometimes its easy - I start with an idea,  a line or a patch of color, and just go. Other times I struggle to find my direction. Lately, I find that building on a background can create good results and allow me to really let my love of color take center stage.

This approach started a while ago when I found an early canvas in my collection of "not suitable for seeing" stash. There were lots of great colors, but the image seemed beyond help. As I looked at the work, I realized that the oripalette of strong hot colors just called out for some cools to balance - and I began to paint over it.

The painting that resulted has become a favorite, and I have used this method - either by painting a new background, or overpainting something else has had good effect several times. In fact, each of the paintings I have in the Instructors Show at Multnomah Art Center were painted in this way. I like knowing that I that the painting on top is hiding another story, and letting just little bits of the past influence the present.

By starting on a painted background in this way, it is easy to select a limited palette, and all that lies beneath offers a subtle texture to the finished work.

Each of these painting is 18x24 acrylic on canvas.

K is for Kandinsky

Inspired by Kandinsky  Tempered Elan 1944

One of the very best parts of my life as an artist is the classes I take. I have often raved about my wonderful teacher, Illa Guttman, and her outstanding Dynamic Abstracts classes, all rooted in art history. Each class is an opportunity to be introduced to another abstract artist, analyze his or her work, and take inspiration from the artist to create our own work.

I tend to fall in love a lot in these classes, meeting old favorites and discovering new ones. But it was Moscow born Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) who stole my heart. His use of color, his imaginative shapes, his vivid use of line, the way he works within a flat plane, and so much more, all  resonate with my own Russian roots.

This painting (18x24 acrylic on canvas) was done in class, inspired by a work called Tempered Elan. The flowing shape reminds me of the gorgeous Russian embroidery I so admire, and the little bird shape recalls a Matryoshka (those brightly colored nesting dolls) for me. The colors and the pattern are my own, but the freedom to paint this free flowing shape is pure Kandinsky.

To learn more about this artist, and see images of his work, visit this site Kandinsky 

On Painting in Series

In the Red Room Variation 2

Having now completed four paintings in this series, and working on the design for number five, a whole new set of problems begins to arise. How do I continue in a theme, using several "givens" yet create variety and maintain interest (my own and the viewers)?

On the list of things to do to work in series is ANALYSIS. As I work on this project I keep coming back to the need to analyze everything I am doing. I need to carefully analyze the botanical shapes of real flowers in order to work toward abstraction. I need to analyze the images that actually take shape my canvas for line quality, color, texture, feeling and style, and, because this is a series, visual consistency.  Very challenging. Very interesting.


The deeper I go in the series, the more important it becomes to plan ahead. I sketch frequently and try lots of variations before I move to the canvas. However, in spite of the careful planning, I am reminded constantly that paint does not behave like a pen, so the results are not necessarily what I start out to create. So, now I am learning to add more detail and pay more attention to the sketches I prepare and analyze all the things I want to accomplish in the piece: the shapes - are they big enough to paint as separate entities? Are they distinct from each other? Does it matter? The colors - I am working on a red background and limiting my palette so that I use the same paints in all the paintings. So, How do the colors play off the background? How do they work together?  Also, (and one of the best parts of the process) is discovering how the mixes from the limited palette create fabulous and harmonious results.

The big picture:  With now four pieces in the series, I need to compare how the shapes and colors and composition of each new piece works with the existing paintings as part of a whole. I also find that as I complete a new piece, I want to go back to the earlier piece to improve it with something new I have just learned. Variation 2 - above is still in process, but I now know what I need to do to complete it - that's progress.

So, to answer a question asked on this blog, has the process helped to narrow my focus? Absolutely, I know where I want to go, I feel more and more comfortable doing this work, because each repetition provides practice, skill building and a better understanding of how to put a painting together. But also, not at all, because the more I paint, the more I experiment, the more I analyze what I want to do, the broader my imaginings become - I keep seeing over the horizon to what's next ... we will see.

Variations on a Theme

In the Red Room, Variation One

I am now in a new painting class, Painting in Series. This feels like a personal gift - just what I need. As I wrote several times in the past, I have been struggling with finding a voice and a direction. This class specifically addresses these issues. My assignment is to create at least five paintings on a theme, repeat some elements, and explore where this process takes me.  

When I knew I would be taking this class I began to think about what I wanted to paint, and think and think. Outside my window, flowers are blooming in a riot of colors and shapes. In my sketchbooks, I find dozens of random drawings of flowers, my photography features flowers and plants from every place I have ever visited, and from the gorgeous gardens of my green-thumbed neighbors. The paintings I have done that seem to get the most positive attention are of flowers - was this my theme? And how about abstraction?

In our first class, Illa Guttman (teacher extraordinaire) provided at set of criteria to follow when determining a theme. The list included this statement, "when working in series, Paint what you like best because ... one needs a strong emotional attachment to the subject matter.  ...  It's really great if the subject continuously feeds your emotions and makes you feel good. Plus you never get bored with a subject if you always paint what you like best." I guess that was my answer - I am never bored with flowers. So, how to begin.

First, find a title. Then, the list says to "find an obsession." I did, day and night, pencil in hand or staring at the clouds. I considered how to simplify flower shapes. I drew the flowers I saw, seeking geometric shapes that would allow me to simplify the images. Then I began to play with shapes alone to build them into flowers, nextI tried putting them together in different ways. One other criteria I kept in mind was the size and shape of the paintings I was going to create. And always, I was thinking about color. Finally, several decisions made, and an open mind to what might appear on the canvas, I began to paint - combining all these ideas, and listening to the small voice in my head that keeps repeating "red walls." 

So, my series is called Variations on a Theme: In the Red Room. This is the first of three paintings I have completed. Is it 16"x20" on canvas in acrylics. More to come ....