GOLD DUST

GOLD DUST

I invision a night sky with an explosion of star dust which may be the beginning or the ending  of a celestial structure.  Once I read that all life is made up of star dust and will return to star dust ...another one of those questions for which I have no answer.

DON'T KNOW

What is the meaning of life, is there life on other planets, is there a heaven or a hell?
For me all the deep questions in life are summed up in these simple oriental symbols.
 I truly don't know.

Painting Update

     I may have paused blogging but I have been painting. Here is my most recent that I finished for Daily Paint Works where you can keep up with my progress.

TEA POT FOR ONE

May the colors fly off of your palette onto the canvas with ease:)
Mary Ellen

BLOG PAUSE

Painting a fire hydrant in our dog park.

   As I grow older I try to listen more and talk less, so taking my own advice  I think it is time to paint more and write/blog less.

The value of my art blog was to keep me focused and learning but the time has come to pause and prioritize my time usage.

I bid you well on your artistic ventures.

Mary Ellen

ANTIQUITY WARRIOR POET Mixed Media

AVACADO SEASON

     It is August and our avacado tree is full of ripening green teardrop orbs. I take them to share with my painting group and Silver Sneakers exercise class. So why not paint the bounty of home grown.

    I pre-painted the canvas with acrylic paints to create the design and then finished it with oils using a palette knife to up the texture factor.

     This time I made myself create a mother pile of color with  warm and cool sub color piles. The value of the warm/cool paint went from dark to light to capture harmonious values.

I used a different photo that captured some foreshortening of the stem.

I like this one better than my finished product. When will I learn to stop painting?

Oil over lay.

COLOR CONUNDRUM CONTINUED

     Let me refresh your memory; I am reading Color by Betty Edwards doing the individual lessons. I chose a fabric, divided my 10x10" board into six sections. Section #1 I glued the original fabric to the board. ( It was supposed to represent all of the major colors in the fabric).
The design in the fabric is way too detailed and it is driving me a bit crazy trying to match up the hue and color when I am directed to paint. It is transparent so it is next to impossible to determine value changes.  Not fun!

STEP 1

STEP 2 & 3

Step 2, lower right, I was to paint matching color and value. Step 3 paint the compliment of the original colors. This step would have been easy if I had not picked a mind boggling design.

Step 4

 Step 4, paint the opposite value but the same hue of the colors.(upper right)

Step 5

     Now I am starting to take liberties with the colors within the design; I just want to finish this lesson. Step 5 added the compliment of the original color to point out how a neutral is important to a final painting.

Step 6

Step 6 goes back to duplicating the original color and values.
In all honesty I did not do justice to this lesson.  I truly see the value in this exercise and I will repeat the lesson with a simple design.
Much to be learned.

  

THE COLOR CONUMDRUM

My instructor felt my weak area was color so I bought Betty Edward's book on Color which I am reading and doing the lessons page by page.

I made the color wheel, value wheel, color surrounded by a neutral and now I am working on color harmony.

Taking a piece of illustration board I taped off the edges, found a designed fabric that I liked, photo copied the fabric and traced the black and white design onto the board.

Fabric

B/W photo copy

Traced design.

Next I must divide my 10x10" into 6 sections. Because the design of the fabric is so busy I will choose a simple box within a box design. The geometric shapes are a rectangle so as not to repeat the square design and the boxes were placed off center.

I chose a geometric shapes for my divisions to act as a foil to the organic shapes of the fabric design.

First division 

Second division

Adding fabric sample

Now I have to color in area 2 with all of the colors of the fabric sample matching value and hue. This make take awhile seeing that I chose an intricate design.

I shot myself in the foot with this one.

To be continued.