New Work, My hike, Color Theory and Value Practice

Soft Storm
16" x 16" painted papers collage/landscape

Red Hills Area of Critical Concern, Jamestown CA

Added value!

The above piece was completed last week. It is the final piece in my Storm/Weather series. I say for now because who am I kidding? The rain is coming back! While making the piece though I was thinking about our red/brown dirt here and the gray skies that sometimes appear "bruised" before the storm starts wailing down on us. It's more of a romantic view I guess of what the sky could look like. Certainly the concept of a "soft storm" is fanciful.

The second photo shows where I spent some time this week. I went over to Jamestown which is about an hour southeast of where we live. I walked on those rocks for several hours! It was a perfect day though and as I stood there and looked around, I thought about the colors that I was seeing. It occurred to me that the colors were very "soft", for lack of a better term. The light wasn't so harsh for starters and the contrast between colors wasn't tremendous. I have gotten used to the big contrasts where I live-bright green grasses and hillsides contrasted against deep iron rich reds and dark, wet tree trunks. The light too is particularly stark because of the sun's angle I guess.  Anyway, as I stood there, I thought about how perfect the colors were side by side. Very harmonious. It made me consider color theory which has always baffled me (and kept me back at times). It started to dawn on me (finally) that I could simply think about color theory in other ways rather than of hue relationships. I tend to consider other things anyway: chroma, value, and the proportion of one color to another. I think about placement as well. It's all governed by how I feel about the overall proportion of things. I have kind of had it with opposite colors and worrying about that particular issue anyway. I just want to slide the colors around mentally until I get what I want or get surprised or both. And besides, I believe in the presence of the Almighty Creator in our universe. Looking around at the landscape on Tuesday, I felt that really the colors couldn't be wrong together in an inherent sense. I just had to figure out what was right to me since really, all of it was just fine "as is", if that makes sense.

The last pic shows where I am starting with the next group of pieces. I painted some gray scale papers this afternoon. Tomorrow, I will start to paint the colored papers, matching the colors up to the particular value that I want. I think it helps to keep things consistent. I am trying to learn. Honestly. It's just a painfully slow process!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.  Thanks for reading and commenting.
Libby