Thursday 12 January 2012

A warm breeze on a winter's day - WIP part 2


Stage 2 - blocking in the cloud
shapes and building up the tones


It's all been happening here... glazing, brushing on and wiping off, dry brush/scumbling. There is lots of broken colour, minute touches here and there of pure colour but for the most part subtle mixes which some might call mud. I can't remember for the life of me where I picked this quote up from, it may be from someone elses' blog or it may be one of the books I've been dipping in and out of but I wrote it down and it's been repeating in my head the last few days;



                            'And how important it is to know how to mix on the palette those colours

                             which have no name and yet are the real foundation of everything.'   
                            
                                                                                                                                          -Van Gogh


Stage 3 - building up the sea
It's the muddy neutrals that make the pure colour sing and I confess they can be the most interesting colours to mix for me.... mud with a hint of...


So here I am at stage 3 needing some more work in the sky, some tightening up in the cloud shapes and colours and working up the waters edge. This piece is on a 50x50cm canvas and I'm enjoying this larger format. Larger scale paintings are what I hope to focus on this year. I've a metre square canvas taunting me and lots of ideas of what to do with it... decisions..decisions...

5 comments:

Lydie said...

The point is that you don4t lack ideas. I love the cOlors of the sky.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It always fascinates me how paintings change like this. The quote is good, but I think it leaves out the nuances of what happens to colour by itself (with a knowledgeable and guiding hand) when more layers and glazes are added, etc. Those kind of nuances you can never mix on the palette! You might mix up a 'muddy this with a hint of that'...but once you have glazed another colour over the top it becomes an entirely different colour which sings.... That's my take, anyhow (lol).....

Zoe, ontheroad said...

I'd really love to see your work in person. This one is coming along beautifully.

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Thank you Lydie, yes I have lots of ideas but sometimes have trouble on settling down to work on just one.... there are never enough hours in the day ;o)

Hi Maggie, I agree with you about subtle nuances of colour that can only happen after multiple layering but find a neutral that only 'just' leans toward a specific hue makes the best foundation to play from for me - at the moment anyhow as I'm using a lot of scumbles as well as glazing.
Looking at Van Goghs paintings recently has reminded me how much neutral colour he used that balanced the pure almost 'straight from the tube' colour. Those neutrals that take the back seat really set the pure colour for centre stage. It was reading this quote that made me go back and relook at his work as he isn't an artist I associate with neutral colour and it's given me food for thought.

Good evening Zoe, thank you. I'm waiting for someone to invent the kind of transporter that they had in Star Trek, it'd be great to 'beam up' and visit people. places and paintings...... maybe one day...