Welcome to Kathleen’s Art Blog!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Thoughts About Color, but First My New Granddaughter


It is such an exciting time in my life right now because I have a first grandchild, born May 31st, and her name is Eleanor Mae (sounds like a good novelist's or artist's name). I'm spending time at my daughter and son-in-law's helping to take care of her. I have to tell you right now, grandchildren are the best reason for having children. What a blessing from God she is!

In the midst of all this, believe it or not, I've been thinking about color. Maybe it's being impressed with the wonders of God's creation and color is a big part of that. Having a pretty good grounding in color theory from my formal art training, I feel I have an adequate ability to lay down and organize colors to express what I want or to make a good composition. What is more intuitive, however, and continually changing in my work is color mixing and color choice. Because I am now allowing nature to inspire me, I've come to notice the incredible range of colors that exist on the surface of one smooth stone or one small clump of moss. The wide variety of greens in a clump of moss may be extremely subtle and difficult to notice, but I strive to do just that and this enables me to get a real richness that I'm striving for in my work.

And so, I've been spending a great deal of time recently just mixing colors of polymer. For example, I'll mix an interesting green, then cut it up into 8 or pieces and add a small amount of another color to each piece and mix it in - maybe white to one piece, ecru to another, a teeny bit of red to another, yellow to another and mud to another. So all the pieces work well together because they have the same base green, but yet all are different. The resulting richness of color enables me to achieve a successful organic quality.

This richness is particularly evident in my "Blowing Grass Purse". I first mixed a large Skinner blend made of 5 colors - purple/ecru/green/ecru/peachy orange - then cut it up into 6 equal pieces and added small amounts of other colors to each blend and mixed each in. So I ended up with 6 variations of one Skinner blend and rolled many pieces of grass out of each, then assembled them all into one clump. These variations are called color shifting and can become extremely powerful when used in one piece of artwork.

14 comments:

Kathi said...

Mazel Tov on the new grandbaby. Your smile makes up for her "no more camera flashes I am tired" face.

thanks for the tip on the color mixing. I had never thought down that line!

Janice said...

Congratulations on the birth of your new granddaughter. You're beaming! And thanks for the info on color mixing . . . your "Blowing Grass Purse" has to be my all-time favorite (although it's very close between that and about 30 other pieces)!

Silly... 'Ma said...

What a joy - a first grandchild. My sister has always said that if she'd known having grandchildren would be so much fun, she'd have done that first. ;-) Lovely name, too.

I can't wait to work with your terrific "secret" to deep color variation! Thank you for such a generous tip.

Blessings on you and your sweet new granddaughter, and of course, her parents.

me<><

Rene said...

You certainly look like a happy grandma, although little Eleanor looks like she's ready for a snooze.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your color theory. It totally makes sense.

What clay brand do you find works the best for you with true color? Also do you use clays in the colors already blended or do you start with basics and blend your own? I noticed that you used a "peachey orange" so that indicates that you mix at least some of your own colors in the Skinner blend.

Your "Blowing Grass Purse" has been one of my favorites and your ability to attach the blades so closely together without their losing their individual shape intrigues me. Have any hints you'd be willing to share? Are the blades cured individually and then assembled?

Thanks in advance for any clues you'd care to share.

Lisa Clarke said...

Congratulations! I hope she has cheered up a bit since that picture was taken :-)

Bettina Welker said...

Seems you have a blast with this sweet little girl. CONGRATULATION from Germany;)
Bettina

PS: and thanks bunches for the great blending tips

whimsymoon said...

Congratulations!!! What a true little work of art!
Hugs,
Angela

lady hermes said...

Lovely thoughts! Grandchildren are wonderful. I have 4, so I know.

PolymerClayTutor said...

A warm welcome to this colorful and fantastic world for your new grandchild!

Jeanne Rhea said...

Congratulations on the grandbaby!

Porro from Finland taught a class in Raleigh about three years ago using the same method that you described for mixing colors! It was so enlightening to me and I have used it often since then. It is almost fail safe!

Unknown said...

Congratulations on your new edition.. If that isn't inspiring, nothing is!!! Best of luck to your family and may this new addition bring you love and joy for a lifetime!!!

Tejae: Heart Shaped Art said...

Congratulations on your grandbaby!

hello from Colorado! We really need to get you back to our guild to teach again.

I'm so happy to know you finally started a blog (geesh, where have i been!) Perfect timing for me as I've started playing with color recipes and the idea of thinking big is a great one. Thanks for sharing!

Looking forward to your new posts! :)

-tejae

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful little thing ! I am happy for you!!!
My son noa is one and a half now and he is running around everywhere...=)
Take care,
Ivana from the Stresa Workshop

Anonymous said...

kathleen, I admire your work so much. Thanks for the color tip with polymer clay. I am a rank beginner, but you give me courage. At 74 I am learning to love Kumihimo. I've done some clay things too, and am inspired to get back to clay as an adjunct to the braiding. One always needs an additon which is unavailable, so why not make it? Thanks for your inspiration. i plan to read your blog regularly.