I've really been enjoying the class I'm taking with George Nick. Each week there's a new assignment. We started with a red/green still life, 16 x 20, then a blue/orange cloth, in a square, 20 x 20, a yellow/purple interior in a circle, and a long narrow landscape, 8 x 32. All had to be painted with ONLY six tone-values ( think six pieces of colored paper) and, after the first red/green painting, they all had to be painted with a palette knife.
The boots (or still life) had to be painted on a 14 x 20 oval. (My oval is a little wobbly.) Painting a relatively large painting with a palette knife week after week gets you out of the habit of being too fussy and detail oriented and skimpy with the paint, and the odd shapes force you to think about the design of the canvas. Using only 6 colors makes you combine and simplify shapes and boy, do you spend a lot of time mixing the exact right color. When you're limited to six, each one needs to be right.
Last Saturday, George asked me if I ADORED the background color of the boots. Strong word, adored. All I could say was that I really liked it. Could I have mixed a better color? I don't know, but he made his point. What's painting about, anyhow?
1 comment:
I truly love these, Kathy! Palette knife work is so challenging, but it really does make you look at the big shapes. Wonderful outcomes!!
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