This is the third painting with my ‘purple, blue, yellow’ palette. I did not apply too many layers of paint atop the initial brush strokes in this composition. I liked the original, underlying forms and did not want to obscure them. In addition to the yellow earth tone, quinacridone nickel, I used bismuth yellow, which is […]
Today I worked with the pigment terra rosa again. I love this color and how smoothly it applies to the paper. It comes from M. Graham, a company which uses honey as one of the ingredients in its watercolors. Maybe that explains its texture. When I plan a composition, I like to think about how I […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Again, I had to stop reading Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art to try out some of his hypotheses. I’m fairly certain that to Kandinsky, his view of the spiritual nature of form and color was not hypothetical. For example, he says that ‘keen’ colors such as yellows are naturally suited to sharp […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: At the risk of becoming succulent-obsessed, today’s study is yet another succulent. I bought this one at a food market. I thought it was a perfect complement to my orange-flowered one. These flowers were just as difficult to draw as the orange ones. What I found very difficult was estimating the differences in tonal […]
Today’s watercolor study: Below is the second study in my ‘brain series’. I have some knowledge of brain anatomy, with which I inform some of the entries in this group of sketches. I am fascinated by the idea that the very arrangement and function of cells in the most important organ of the central nervous […]
Once again, I started today with a pen and ink scribble of the back yard again. Several comments about my back yard forays: First of all, I do not feel obligated any more to reproduce the appearance of every leaf on every tree. I credit this to Paul Klee and his description of drawing as […]
