Tuesday 21 September 2010

Writing a Feature

Painting The Blues!

I have spent  today completing a feature for an art magazine. While I worked with a selection of blue shades I realised how much fun it is to literally watch paint dry. I have learned so much from sitting still and enjoying watching the pigments fuse and merge as they dry minus the use of a hairdryer to speed things up. In fact I detest  the use of a hairdryer as it really can ruin gloriously natural  results from allowing watercolour to dry in its own time.

There is a tiny burst of  pigment  trying to escape in these strong bold placements of  colour application.Even the "bully" Cadmium Yellow is subdued into behaving for a change!

How many artists race to work on a completed masterpiece and lose vital pleasure and excitement from the joys of just playing with colour for the sake of it? 

Heaven forbid a day will come where I don't say " WOW!" at  two pigments creating fascinating reactions as they dry.

For now I must get back to writing but today has been so much fun.

And that is how painting should be for me,

Sheer joy and pleasure.

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4 comments:

Roy Simmons said...

LOL! So... as much fun as watching paint dry has a new meaning! I must confess Jean I am impatient, I now don't use a hairdryer because of the blowing effect. BUT I now use a Chefs blowtorch! You get heat without moving the paint so much.

tess stieben said...

Wonderful note, to just play with pigment and enjoy.

I used a hairdryer once on instruction of a teacher, when I saw how forced drying dulls the pigments I realized that for watercolor to vibrate and glow it needs to dry naturally.

Teresa

hap said...

Thanks for sharing that Jean! I know I'm not the only one who enjoys just watching paint "happen", but it's nice to get a bit of affirmation once in a while from another!! I absolutely love the interplay between one color and the next! It's a surprise and a treat, every time I paint!

devotedmomof7 said...

How true! I am taking a class series from Geri Medway and yesterday's class involved just such a study! We made a pageful of samples from various sedimentary mixes. It was new to me and, I'm sure, will be a tremendously useful tool. Watching what each combination did as it dried was interesting! So, I agree, watching paint dry CAN be lots of fun!