Organizing rhythms and textures. Maybe it's my years of painting exclusively in watercolor where you plan it out in advance. Or it could be the powerful influence of jazz. It might be that I just like the sound of splashing in puddles, or tromping on the sand. But organizing rhythms in a painting has a lot to do with texture for me. It helps the painting move and breathe. And it tells you how I feel.
More notes above. Random thoughts from the afternoon. No, no nap. Yet. Just some drifting and some thoughts surfacing again. These are about a layer of a painting. Preparation for a performance.
You see I never use black on a watercolor, or so rarely it's okay to say never. I mix hues and get a richer sense of black, but it is not really a black. So it surprised me when the strong urge to oil paint not only black, but grey and white not mixed from other colors, but straight out of the tube. This passage, this rhythm would be unified by it's color. Will it glare, or will it harmonize? It's a dance of light. A scat of a moment in time. Black and white or blends of light?
I do not know just yet. Why does it matter? Because my choice creates an edge, a boundary on a map. It's that spot that leaps from nature to abstract response. I had thought this layer would be blues, greyed a bit, but blues, maybe some violet. But there's an opportunity for rich greys and perhaps a slash of black and a fleck of white. And that is decidedly a stretch for me.
We might be going downtown with this one. I may need to take it urban. Uh oh. I just got that butterfly in the gut. Definitely a leap. I hate it when my muse just keeps shoving. "Really Jan, trust me, you'll like it. " Just get some sleep and then we'll do it. Augh, easy for my inner Wynton to say. But then as I said. He's never steered me wrong.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thoughts on Organizing Texture
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4 comments:
Are you going Franz Klein on us?
Black??
I like the concept of organizing textures even if I've never done it..too late to start?
Definitely too late to start planning my watercolors but not too late for the texture angle.
Ever onward into the breach-
Get over there you Textures! Ya hear me?
The textures in your pommes this morning were beautifully organized. Maybe a Franz, maybe a little Johns..I haven't played in neutrals in awhile.
I "cheat" and make my black with Paynes Grey and Van Dyke Brown, mabye a bit of Cobalt Blue thrown it.
It gives a reasonable facsimile for black, but it's not that overwhelming.
Your posts make me wanna go and paint. (But it's summer, and I'm torn between painting and going fishing).
So far, the bass are winning.
- Friar
Friar,
Now that's the kind of cheating that is just fine.
Ooh I like what your mix will do. Try alizarin crimson, ultramarine violet, and warm sepia if you want to play a bit with some more watercolor pigments. That's what I do for black, or at least dark registers..
I am thinking I am going to have to do a mix and also the black... still puzzling a bit cause it is oils and yet I am doing them like watercolor kinda.
But I would be out on that lake too. :)
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