On Saturday I attended a brief talk by Craig Berry [you can find him here http://atelier2302.com]
on the Munsell colour theory. Well, I knew this was coming up and I have been checking out a few sites to see if I could get a handle on it. It seems complicated but since I have never really tuned in completely to the traditional colour theories I thought this might help me with colour. After the talk I ordered the book - mistakenly ordered it under the quick delivery - and it came today! So here I have hundreds of little colour chips to fit on to charts while schooling myself in Hue, Value and Chroma.
I've been thinking that I need to do some small paintings to help me understand the subtle changes in colour so I purchased a few 9x12" birch panels and set to it. The first one I gave up the brush on and finished it with the palette knife. This is the painting I posted in the last post. Finally, I persevered with the brush and finished this painting this morning.
I absolutely love John Hammond's painting so since I was struggling with acrylics I got out one of his books and began reading. Because my first "sample" painting ended in a fit of "palette knife expressionism" [how's that for keeping positive!] completely different from what I had initially planned I encouraged I was when I read, "As far as the actual painting process is concerned, while I place much importance on first-hand observation of the subject and making reference drawings, I prefer not to plan the work too thoroughly. When talking about how I work, I often make an analogy between painting and taking a journey - I know the destination, but I have not plotted the precise route. Normally I have a good idea as to what I want to achieve in the end, but I am always willing to consider - and possibly respond - to happy accidents and other events that may develop during the painting process. Having a sort of blueprint for the painting that you must adhere to is very restricting, and it certainly will not encourage free expression!" I simply must work my way through his encouraging and insightful book….
The book is:
An important book that gives artists the best advice on freely expressing themselves in acrylics. It is not enough to learn just the techniques but to understand how to choose the right technique to express what you feel or how to interpret what you see. It is also important to paint the right element of what you see to give real impact. Using your instinct to simplify and exaggerate, the book shows you how to have freedom of expression with a paintbrush. Leading acrylics painter John Hammond focuses on an increasingly popular medium which has terrific potential to deliver images with impact.
Ah, the color in that painting is wonderful! It looks like summer and sunlight and warm breezes and carefree days. It seems that book is a great tool to have. I'll have to look into it...
ReplyDeletexo Silke
Well the cloud is a bit strange - but otherwise the 'pasture' is quite typical of our landscape… and after three days of snow and rain I am looking forward to tomorrow's sunshine and +14 degrees
DeleteI hope you get a lot out of your exploration into color. It must be more fun to paint when you don't have a show coming up
ReplyDeleteThe colour book has "assignments" in it! It will be a challenge to work my way through. Yes, not being under the pressure to produce something worthwhile or of "value" is freeing. I did offload the Roses painting to the gallery today, which is another way of letting go of that pressure.
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