I love color and I am not afraid to use it
Observing Viridian Green has led me on an interesting path. I participated in a painting workshop that was all about using LARGE brushes and a small canvas.
Lately, I have to admit, I have been using my small brushes a little too much..so I knew that this workshop would be just what I needed.
Palette and large brushes
The concept behind this technique is to simply help you loosen up…you use a lot of paint and NO water (you clean your brush with lots of paper towel). By a lot of paint, I MEAN ALOT…you go through tubes of paint! At first, this was a little painful for me, since I still have paint from college ( I graduated in the late ’80’s) but then after awhile, using gobs of paint was liberating! Rather than (traditionally) mixing color on a palette and then applying paint, (see below)
Traditional Palette
with this technique you use a limited palette, and mix the paint right on the canvas in as few strokes as possible. The results, I think are unexpected and REFRESHING! Below are three studies that I did after my trip to the farmer’s market.
Zucchini and Onion...what's for dinner
Can't get enough Zucchini
Don't forget the tomatoes!
My water cup, AFTER I painted the Tomato Study
Although these studies were supposed to be about Viridian Green, as you can see…in my world there is no such thing as studying one color. When observing color, you can actually see a myriad of color. The real key, is well, NOT TO BE AFRAID TO USE THEM! Ok, now that I gave away my biggest secret…:)
Harry Chapin eloquently stated this idea in his song “Flowers are Red” . …”there are so many colors in a rainbow, so many colors in the morning sun, so many colors in flower so let’s use every one!”…
No shameless plugs this time…but if you want to go to my etsy store, that would be great 
! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6387043&ga_search_query=anothercreation&ga_search_type=seller_usernames
May your days be filled with color! ~’Til Next time, Michele
On the Rocks
Well, I think that I finally got the ice pops out of my system. I gave the color wheel a spin and here is my next color to explore:
Color for 7/25
A shade of green..with some blue in it. Not quite Viridian, but an interesting color none the less.
While I was biking with my family in the Green Mountains of Vermont a couple of weeks ago, I came across a pile of slate, that was just begging to have an image painted on it. So I picked up a piece and continued on my way. Then came another surprise. See below
Cow and a shirtless farmer on the bike path
A Cow on the bike trail. I am not sure what was funnier, a cow that would not MOOVe (sorry for the pun) or a shirtless, shoeless farmer chasing after her!
Well lucky for me..Green was a primary color in this shot, so only time will tell what direction the next post will go in.
Below is the painting that I created on the piece of slate that I picked up.
Vermont Landscape on Slate found in VT
Side view of the multiple layered rock that I found
No shameless plugs this time for my etsy store. Only one last photo of a (green, of course) leaf.
- Sunflower leaf
I was amazed to see that a bug actually chewed a Heart out of one of the leaves of my sunflower plant!
!Warning: Painting Ice Pops Outside Could be Harzardous
Paint set-up
What can I say? Some people never learn.
One beautiful morning I decided to gather my supplies and paint outside…an activity that I usually only do when I am on vacation. This summer, I don’t have any big vacation plans. This was one of my “staycation” days…and I decided to go for it. Next on the agenda, was to decide what to paint…I still wasn’t satisfied with my exploration of the color of the moment, rose/melon. The sun was shining brightly, and I ran to the freezer. I was going to give the ice pop another try. If I paint fast, I would be hopefully be able to capture the subtle nuances in the colors of the pop. Below is my first study.
Ice Pops
Melted ice pop
What can I say…Mother Nature Got Me Again!
!
Ice pop card
This card was created from the first study shown above. I printed it onto cotton fabric, and then did some thread painting. I mounted the image on repurposed denim and added the tag “I’m melting”.
Now for the shameless plug. This card is available in the handmade greeting card section of my etsy store:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28161093
If you purchase this card, and mention my blog in “a message to Seller”, then you will receive a COLORFUL Surprise with your card!
May your days always be filled with color. ‘Till Next Time! ~Michele
Here’s a life lesson…Never leave a still life unattended.
What was left of my watermelon still life
As I continued to examine the color of the week (well now it looks like it has become the color of a couple of weeks ) rose/melon, I decided to do a study of a watermelon. I cut the melon, and arranged the composition on a plate. I left what was a still life to me, but a delicious looking snack to my 15 year old daughter. I went up to my studio to gather some supplies, and I heard her say that she was hungry. Of course I gave the usual reply of “I’ll be right there..” which was not really true. After checking email and various other things, I unintentionally, didn’t come back for a good 1.5 hours. Well, that should teach me! You guessed it. My still life was..well… all but devoured. She did say it was delicious! Above is the drawing that I did of what was left of my still life.
I took the image thay I created and turned into..(you guessed it!) a one of a kind greeting card. See below:
Water melon card
I took the image and printed it on repurposed (new word for recycled in the art world) white fabric. I then bleached out some areas to get a nice thick white outline. After that, I went in with some paint to redefine areas that had gotten a “little soft” during the printing process. After that, I did some thread painting and to finish off the job I mounted the image to a piece of repurposed denim. The tag in the left corner says
” Sweet Memories of Summer”. This image is suitable for framing! Now it is time for the shameless plug.
This greeting card is available at my etsy store in the handmade section. Here is the link:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28160232
If you mention my blog in a “Message to the Seller” you will receive a SURPRISE with your order!
May your days always be filled with color. ‘Till Next Time ~Michele
Here’s what happened to the ice pop..
Well, I actually did create some greeting cards from this image. Below is a sample of one them. Just to clarify…the ice pop stick has a riddle on it. It says: “What type of music do geologists like?” Being the “punny” person that I am, I made this into a Birthday Card. That should explain the greeting inside the card .
Ice Pop B-Day card cover
Now for the shameless plug. This card is available at my etsy store in the category of handmade greeting cards.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28159018
May your days be filled with color. Till Next Time! ~ Michele
When things are looking rosy..
Welcome to July! For this week’s color selection, I randomly chose one of my favorite colors..a tint of red, some would call rose. See color chart below:
color for week of 7.1 ~ Rose
Since it was finally starting to feel like Summer, I decided to do a sketch of an ice pop…it kind of took off on its own (the way most of my art usually does) and became this:
ice pop illustration for the color "Rose" or Acra Red with a tint of white
I think that it is begging to become a handmade greeting card. I will post whatever happens to this masterpiece, it may wind up in someone’s mailbox in the not too distant future . My goal this week is to do a bunch of short studies of rose/melon colored things. Stay Tuned! Have a happy 4th! ~Michele
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!
Ok, so it is almost a week since my last post. What can I say.. life happens. Anyway, an interesting thing occurred while I was painting my initial study. I was painting it outside, on what was a very cloudy day. Hoping (more like wishing) that it would not rain “on my parade” I decided to take the chance and paint outside. Mother Nature won, and it poured like there was no tomorrow. This is when I got the idea for the title of my piece, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade”! I think the rain helped push this painting into the mixed media collage that it evolved into. I also created a “one of a kind” handmade greeting card!
Final version of my lemon (yellow) study
Here is a close up of the painting.
close up of painting
This original painting is available at my etsy store: http://tinyurl.com/ckabsa (look for original art)
Here is the “one of a kind” handmade greeting card (blank inside)
- handmade greeting card
This greeting card was created from the original lemon study. I photograhed the painting, and then printed the lemons on fabric. Then I thread painted the lemons, and added some elements of collage. For example, I used an actual piece of the bag that the lemons came in. I created the background from scraps of fabric…so this is repurposed piece of art!
This orginal handmade card is available at my etsy store: http://tinyurl.com/ckabsa (look under handmade cards)
Thanks for stopping by, until next time! ~Michele
When life hands you lemons..
Welcome to my blog, “Colour My World”! I have always believed that people are naturally attracted to certain colors, they can’t help it, they just are. There are certain colors that drive you, and some that drive you crazy. I plan to use my blog to explore color. To start with, I hope to choose a color a week, and examine an object that is known to be that color. For example, I decided to begin with yellow and to paint lemons.
This week's color for inspiration is checked
For those of you who are familiar with my work, the images that I create will probably be some sort of mixed media collage. All of the images and their various forms will be for sale at my etsystore, anothercreation or http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6387043. Below is my initial study of lemons. Tomorrow I will post the changes that I made to piece. Come back…I think that this is going to be a Colorful adventure!
First study of lemons