Deep Experimentation

More experiments with the Zorn palette.  I wanted to explore the range of colors and moods I could get with those same 4 colors--black, white, Cadmium Red med. and Yellow Ochre.  I'm also trying to be even more raw in painting, not polishing them up so much.  Nancy Hillis has a phrase--deep experimentation--that is always in my mind.  I think that will be my word(s) for the year.  To me it's about showing up, listening deeply to intuition, trying the uncomfortable, and hardest of all, doing a lot of paintings that I end up not even liking.  There's a lot of letting go to work on this year, but I think that's where the more exciting work is.

I love this time of year, reviewing what worked and didn't work last year and planning for the new one.   To set a direction for painting, I've been using these questions from Donna Zagotta's blog a few years ago.  I've probably paraphrased them, but they are basically what she asks.

1.  In the next 12 months, I want to accomplish--

2.  To achieve my goals, I will have to--

3.  My current interests are--

4.  Some things I would like to explore in my work--

5.  Words I want to have describe my work--

6.  3 artists I want to have as mentors--

7.  One specific thing I like about each of these artist's work--

8.  I can incorporate some of these ideas into my own by--

9.   If I could paint only one subject--

10.  I love painting this subject because--

11.  I can create a series on this subject by--

12.  I will love my paintings when--

I've answered them for painting, but I think I'll now go back and see how they apply to my stitching.

Out With the Old

While I was somewhat sad to finish up my 2016 stitch project, I am nothing but happy to have the 2017 one done.  I struggled with this one more, mainly because of the silk thread I used throughout it.  It tangled and snagged, and I spent way too much time trying to smooth it back down.  Lesson learned.  I also felt restricted by the composition in this one and started getting bored with it towards the end.  But I am happy I stuck with it and finished it.

Here's the December part.  I was not planning on using red and green as that seemed so...Christmasy, but it wanted to appear anyway.

I did feel good when I finally laid each month out together and got to see the whole thing.  Things always look better in lots of multiples.  I was surprised it turned out so colorful.  I thought I had a lot more neutrals in it.

I like the idea of it joining together in a long piece that somehow is displayed on spools, but for now I have to put both of these projects away and look at them fresh later.

Now I'm pondering the next stitch project.  I've been having such a hard time coming up with something for 2018 that I'm wondering if it means I don't want another year long project.  But I do like having something I do daily.  I showed this in my art group meeting, and one of the members, who also happens to be a therapist, asked me an interesting question-- "How has it changed you to work on something daily like this?"  I do think it changes you.  Partly it's having just a wee bit of structure, deadline, commitment to myself everyday.  It's almost like a little bit of self-care and a way of honoring my quiet time each day.  It also was very useful for keeping me present and aware of all the marks and lines around me as the seasons shift.

I do have ideas now for more handstitching in 2018, so I think I will just start something and see if it evolves into a yearlong project or not.

My new guidelines are:
1.  No silk thread!
2.  Room for compositional experimentation.
3.  Easily portable.  It has to fit into a ziplock bag.
4.  Not too many choices, limited materials.
5.  Only recycled materials or things I already have.

Happy New Year!

Zorn Palette

You know how sometimes one little bit of information from a class makes you feel like you got your money's worth?  I remember taking a quilting class years ago in which the teacher demonstrated the quilter's knot.  I can't even remember what sort of quilt we made, but I have never forgotten that life changing knot!

I think the Zorn Palette may be my quilter's knot for Studio Journeys.  This is such a simple, elegant palette that I'm surprised I never heard of it before.  It is the palette used by 19th century Swiss painter, Anders Zorn and consists of only 2 colors and black and white.  But what a gorgeous range of blends come from those colors!  He used yellow ochre and cadmium red, then Mars black in place of any blue, and white.  I didn't have any Mars black so substituted Carbon black.  I'm not sure if that makes much of a difference or not.  I'd like to try different blacks to find out.

Below is the palette in my sketchbook, with several values of each blend.  The squiggles are little samples of the yellow, red, and black mixed together in different proportions.  I then did a 12"x12" painting using this palette.  It has been so interesting to see these posted on our Facebook group because depending on the emphasis, you can get an entirely different look, from earthy to more vibrant.

I have really been enjoying these studies in limited palettes.  It feels good to squeeze out only a few paints and know they will not be wasted.  And the simplicity allows me to pay more attention to value.  I'll be revisiting this palette quite often!

Goodbye to 2016

Considering I've been working on this stitch project for two years now, I'm a little sad to be done with it.  It has become such a staple of my days and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  I liked the stitching of individual components in 2016 and then seeing how they all joined together month by month in 2017.  So with this last post of December 2016, I'll say goodbye to it, at least for now.  I'm hoping that someday I may find a place to display the whole project and get some decent photos of it all together.  I really haven't gotten to see how the whole year interacts together.  Maybe a big space will come my way this year.

Color Experiments

When I found out that our second art bundle in Studio Journeys was going to be about working with color constraints, I was a little disappointed.  I've done so many color wheel studies and done paintings using only compliments or analogous colors, and I assumed we would be doing more of those.  I am so thrilled that Nancy Hillis took a different approach.

We started by using only secondary colors.  That never occurred to me to even try.  We mixed purple and green, purple and orange, and green and orange as the basis for our palette, and then mixed in black, white and two grays.  The secondaries produced a gorgeous range of colors with lots of earthy, subtle blends.

I decided to follow my friend Paula's example and keep good notes in a notebook.  Beside each palette study I did a small color study painting.  Those led to lots of different questions for more exploration.  What if I emphasized purple instead of green, what if I emphasized the dark values or the brighter intensities?  These experiments give way for a whole range of painting ideas.

This first mix is from Golden's Permanent Violet dark and Utrecht Veridian hue (a color that has always been way too harsh on its own, but it produced some gorgeous blends.)

Golden's Permanent Violet dark mixed with Golden's Cadmium Orange.

And Utrecht Viridian Green with Golden's Cadmium Orange

After I did those initial studies, I wondered what would happen if I started with a different version of the secondaries.  I grabbed some different tubes and started blending, then mixed each blend with a little white.  I then chose one of my favorite combinations to do another small study.

Green and Violet blends.

Violet and Orange.

Green and Orange.

I got a little obsessed doing these as I found the results quite delicious.  It feels like I now have a shortcut to the perfect color.  I spend so much time mixing the perfect dusty aqua, for example, with a bit of this and a bit more of that.  Now I can get a head start on it by starting with the right secondaries. 

It was also the perfect little quick project for the month.  With my son home from college and lots of Christmas activities going on, I couldn't focus on anything much bigger than this.  Happy Holidays Everyone!

December Dilemma

It seems strange to me that I could easily pull colors for my daily stitching for every month except December.  Both in 2016 and 2017, I hit a wall there.  Maybe because the month is complicated with more time focused inside than outdoors.  If I used the actual seasonal colors I'm seeing out my window, everything would be pretty much drab gray, black and evergreen.  But then inside, everything is sparkly and colorful.  And emotionally, I'm all over the place in December.  Lots of festivities and activities, but also a lot of peaceful family time, with a little family drama thrown in.

Maybe I gave up trying, but last year I settled on a very neutral palette, with more leaning towards the whites and creams.  We were snowed in much of Dec. last year, so that certainly contributed.

Many of the components are very simple.

But then there are busier ones too.

And I had to add a pop of festive color, so I went with some red here and there.

It's hard to believe that I will be wrapping these projects up in a couple weeks.  I'm getting ready for a new start, although I still don't know what it will be!  I'm hoping for a flash of inspiration very, very soon.

November Leaves series

I finished the November Leaves series I was working on for Nancy Hillis's Studio Journeys.  I'm used to working in a series, but gave a little more thought to this one along the way.  Working in a series lets me see what habits I get into.  One that popped out at me is that I tend to compose in a circular manner and leave the center open when working in a square format.  So for these last 2 pieces in the series, I made sure I put something in the center and did a more asymettrical compostion.

Some series are tightly related from the beginning and clearly show the theme.  In this one the November leaves idea just served as a jumping off point, and really, my paintings had little related to what November leaves were actually looking like at the time.  That didn't bother me.  To me the important thing is finding inspiration to work and letting one painting inform the next.  At the end though, I did want to include that burst of bright yellow that was still clinging to the trees even late in November.

We're now doing some very exciting color studies which I'll post next week.  After working with these neutrals all month, I'm ready for a new palette.