GATHERING BEAUTY with Wendy Brightbill

     I needed to refill my artistic well so I signed up for an online workshop with Wendy Brightbill; "Gathering Beauty".  A class helps me to rein in my scattered thought of what to paint or experiment with next. I fear I am one of those that abandons a new style half way through the learning process, I see something bright and shiny so off I go in a new direction.

     First Wendy said to gather photos of my own still life set ups: OK done.

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          Next Wendy covered line, value and color. All are important topics and Wendy did a great job for teaching a beginning artist but I must admit that I did do a little fast forwarding until I came to the subject of color.
I used the black and white plus the color still life from Wendy's class, tracing it onto my watercolor paper. Now I am ready to watch the two color videos.


Points observed: * first set out a palette of warm colors plus black and white to paint a variety of warm colors into the flowers, (I normally use a full but limited color palette) * black and orange give a brown,* Wendy adds gray to "dull"a color . ( new to me)
Next she sets up a separate cool palette of greens and blues, the colors are not from a limited palette which I am used to using.
*vary colors with in an object frequently, * finish off with a silver and white metallic pen, (new to me)* complete the painting with colored pencils and oil pastels for more delicate details, * use a dull color for the background ( new to me).

     It was not the most informative on line class for me but I do like her impressionistic style and her enthusiasm for painting. If I only learn one new thing it is worth my time and I did learn. I will now complete the still life using her method so look for the results next week.

FINAL TALE OF THE ABSTRACT

                    I left off with this odd crystal like painting having no idea where it would go.

Pink background

     It has a charm of its own but the style felt uncomfortable so I began imagining the original still life done in a 3D format similar to my butterfly mini mural. I have chosen a pink background to begin building my idea.
I will work from the background up to the foreground trying to stay focused on the end goal, a 3D still life of two bottles.

My still life referenc

Background first

                          

My hope is that the background floral print of the cloth will peek through the bottles when I paint the foreground. The background has a cooler temperature and I will do softer edges. When I finished the detailing I did a cool soft blue wash over the vertical portion so it will recede more.


               

Details added to background

OK, now what ?  I've already lost the fire in the belly for this still life, maybe I should paint a large figure for the third layer of paint. 

I need some ideas!!  HELP

AGONY OF ABSTRACTS

     I had a vision in my mind's eye; the color blocks of cool colors would be layered with tones of whites to create depth, then I would place detailed highly colored designs on the vertical and horizontal stripes.

Color blocking

There are too many ugly stages during  painting for me to always keep my passion and mental vision afloat but I will try to get this painting to the finish line.

Adding oil pastel marks

Adding papers 

Why do I end up with the same old cruciform format? It is flat and I'm tired of it so I thought I would go with more dimension such as 3D pyramids or crystals.

Negative painting of geometric shapes.

Filling in the positive space.

     I have company coming for a visit this week end so I will not be able to work on this painting but won't it be fun for both of us to find out what happens in the last chapters of my abstract story!

     I'm back and it did not go well:( , I will fill you in next week.

UNDER THE WEATHER!

     Sorry I missed you last week but I felt awful because of sinusitis and bronchitis. Wouldn't you know we had my dear brother and his wife visiting for the week end. I took every over the counter med to keep me going but they knew I was hurting. Fortunately they are so easy to have in your home, they bring their own coffee pot, coffee, wine, tissues and the list goes on. Joan calls themselves the "Party Beduins". Soon they will drive back to the cold lands of Illinois and their grandkids.

    Please forgive how I look and celebrate that I was brave enough to post it for the world to see.

      Monday my dear husband made the arrangements and took me to the Dr. so now antibiotics and prednisone are coursing through my veins and I had my first good night sleep in a week. With a few more lazy days I think I will make it.

Life truly is like a box of chocolates.