Time Out!

dots of  Fall color

Although my time for painting is limited for the moment, I manage to snatch at even 10 minutes during the day if only to scrutinize what I've done or to add a brush stroke here and there if necessary. We are doing work on the inside of our house so I am in the midst of moving things from place to place, getting rid of all that isn't strictly necessary. For me, a professed hoarder, this is a difficult lesson  but I'm beginning to like it.  I feel pounds lighter.


The other day, however, before the rainy season started, I took time out for a walk in the garden.

The last roses of summer

our persimmon tree ablaze with red leaves

 Beautiful! Recharged my energy completely.

Watercolor behavior

color proofs continued



 These proofs are experiments with various preparations of  watercolor paper before applying color. Top left: soap on dry paper and burnt umber with drops of pure water applied after. Bottom left: soap applied to paper then  colors added while soap is still wet. Center top: paper prepared with alum and water and then drops of burnt umber. Center bottom: soap applied to dry paper, then a wash of burnt umber was applied. Right top and bottom: fixative is sprayed on paper and while wet the wash of color is applied.

Why all these proofs?  The proofs are an attempt to discover in what ways  colors react to various preparations on your paper as well as to study the properties of each individual color; some are transparent, some are heavy with sediment and therefore opaque. This knowledge helps to create texture and brilliant color in a painting.


8 x 11inches
20 x 28 cm



Watercolor experiments

6 1/2  x 6 1/2 inches
17 x 17 cm. 

More proofs with watercolor. I'm trying to do a small painting every day.

This color sketch was done on wet paper without a preliminary drawing starting from two or three large color spots that I let dry.(top right and center)

From there, studying the possible forms created,  I found my figure and created the structured space around him.  (measuring space)


 
 
top - drops of color, (red,green,yellow), intermingle on dry paper.

middle - wet color sprinkled with salt. salt lifts color leaving  texture.

bottom - wet paper. drops of primary colors and their compliments let mingle.


6 1/2 x 6 in
17 x 17 cm.

Again, beginning with spots of color, (terra umbra bruciata and ultramarine blue) left foreground, right hand corner and top center, I created my figures and constructed the space surrounding them. (measuring space)



Waiting it out

What to do if your telephone goes mute and not only are you isolated totally from the rest of the real world but you can't even click onto your blog world? Nothing you can do really. You just have to patiently wait it out.


Wait for the telephone company to answer your desperate call and send out a technician (thank goodness for cell phones). Once technician #1 comes around to find out what the problem is you have to wait again until he makes a report to a second company, the one that actually repairs the damage. But this company only deals with problems directly concerning 1° company, ie.: external wires from the house to the telephone pole, all the rest is your problem.

Technician #2 puts in new wires from the house to the pole, (eaten by our expert company of field mice ) and puts my phones back in working order but finds two teeny weeny wires that he is convinced have short circuiting powers and decides to exclude them.

Where did these teeny weeny wires go? . . .to my computer's modem, of course!  Soooo . . .wait another few days to find an electrician who would come to the house (we live in the country) to solve a teeny weeny problem like this. Luckily we  found someone who solved the problem in minutes so I'm back on line. And, by the way, those two teeny weeny wires? Couldn't have caused a short circuit even if they wanted to. . . Boh!

During all this waiting, no telephone calls, no Internet to distract me, I've contiuned to play with my watercolors.

some "teeny weeny" proofs 



color - wet on wet



5  x 6 in. (14  x 16 cm)

5 x 6 in (14 x 16 cm)