How do you see colour

I should have been moving house today. But, due to problems further down the chain, it's had to be delayed for a couple of weeks or so. But fingers crossed that it can all go through soon. Until that momentous day, I continue packing......

But the days of waiting are sometimes punctuated with pleasant surprises, and today was one of them. My good friend K turned up unexpectedly as he was in the area and wondered if I was at home. And I know he likes drinking tea as much as I do, so I'm sure that had part of the pull !

We've not seen each other for a while, and it was good to catch up with him and have a chat. He's very easy company and we share a lot of interests - he talked about his new job, his wife, and kids and we got onto the usual subject of art.

And one of the things he said got me thinking. He made a comment about people being colour-blind and said he wondered what colours they saw instead? For instance, is the red that he sees, the same as the red that they see? Or blues? Or greens? Infact, are any of the colours he sees the same as the ones I see, for instance. I thought for a while, and we discussed the fact that some people have a hatred for some colours - either through something within them, or through a learnt reaction (for instance it was years after I left school before I was happy being seen in a pale blue blouse and light grey skirt, as it was my school uniform, and I obviously still had some negative reactions to it, and I enjoyed my school-days!).

I had a friend years ago who hated the colour red. She adored pink. But not red. Now, why would that be? What was in her that had created that irrational reaction? Or maybe she'd had a bad experiece with the colour in her formative years (perhaps a nasty episode with a tomato in the spin drier? Or an aversion to blood maybe?). She wouldn't have the colour in the house and certainly wouldn't buy any red clothes or lipsticks. And I know of other people who hate particular colours - K said he hated to see women in dark purple, and yet he liked dark blue, which isn't far off in tone and colour. He said he hated brown too, and I agreed, I find it a dead colour. I love it as a colour though as in natural woods, and brunette hair colouring, but not particularly for home decor colour schemes, and clothes for me.  

So, all this leaves me, as an artist, with a problem. If I like colours, I'll use them in a picture. But, if someone doesn't like them, they won't buy the picture. And what if they see a particular colour in a different way to the way I see it? How can I paint a picture for them? Or do people who are colour blind just "read" it differently? If I painted a landscape all in greens, do they see the greens? Or do their eyes just "read" it as "landscape" and the colours are immaterial?

But then, I've had people go a real "Wow" over some of the pictures I've painted, because of the really bright colours. So, it obvioulsy "works" for some people.

And all in all, probably leaves me a little confused! But then, that's the joy of art. No one really knows..........
It's just finding that bit of magic that works within the picture - whether its through colour, or not.

It works!

After starting the working painting for Fitzy the other week, and not being entirely happy with it, I re-started the second "working painting" soon after and was able to finish it this week. So, since I was happy with it, I now hoped that he would be! So, I sent him the image and awaited the reply......................

And................. He loves it! YAY! So, now I can get on and paint it properly onto the large canvas he wants it on as the finished piece.

It is slightly different to the original "Living flame" painting in that I've added a few more darks to this masculine image. The main reason being that a mans body is more "square" than the rounded shape of a woman, and because there are less curves within a masculine body, I had to take away from the symmetry of the image by changing the balance between light and dark, shown mostly as the blue tones and the light yellow tones here. I love the bright colours within the image though, and the use of the bright red in certain areas adds a zizz to the more muted tones. It was also interesting to see how the hands developed, in the original, I did the hands as two different colours and that idea didn't work at all. This one does though, with the subtle variation in colour between the lights and darks on the hands. There's also a lot of other colour happening in and around the body, the subtle changes in colour add a lot of vibrant interest to this image. I love it!!

And I love this style of painting. Its difficult to do, but I love the effect of it. And shall love transferring this image onto canvas. It means re-drawing the whole thing on to a larger surface, and it means starting the whole thing again, but now I have the "working painting" to work from, the thought process has gone into the original, and in theory all I need to think about now is the technicality of getting the image to look good on a large canvas as the finished piece.

But, before I do all of that, I have to do a working painting of the first "Fantasy Willie" that Fitzy wants to accompany this "Living flame" image of him. Because the two are to be hung as a pair, together, so the colours have to be the same, or at least not to clash. So, that will have to be painted before I can start the canvas of this painting, just incase there are any changes I have to make to this one before I start painting them both properly. They are siblings, and have to created as such.

Brothers in paint! :)

Actually, no, that's not quite right, they are both studies of Fitzy, so perhaps they are "aspects" rather than "brothers"............................... either way, they are connected to each other.

Painting sensual sound

Can you paint a sound? I can. I know, because I did it yesterday! I attended an art workshop, and all I knew was it was going to be "landscape in mixed media". Sounds quite exciting. But I was wrong........................... It was VERY exciting!!!

The woman who ran the day workshop was very arty, and creative, and inspiring. She does very vibrant and brightly coloured landscapes using virtually everything that she can, to create her works of art - watercolour paint, acrylic paint, oil pastel, soft pastel, acrylic inks, dried ink, pens, brushes, and collage made from patterns she's created on paper and tissue paper to add texture to her work. So a messy day then! YAY! I can always tell if its been a good art day if I go home with blue fingers! LOL

To start the workshop, we were asked to draw basic shapes in specific colours, a black triangle, a green rectangle, yellow circle, orange swirl, blue oval,red square. And then to say what we thought of the colour and how it related to the shape. For instance, the green was considered calming but the shape of the rectangle was strong and rigid so they were giving conflicting signals, the yellow circle was happy, the black triangle was menacing, and the red being the colour of passion but a square isn't passionate as the lines are too straight. I preferred the orange swirl both for colour and for a shape.

So we had learnt that you have to consider colour AND shape and the message you want to convey by using particular combinations of them.

Next we had to paint sound. And what an interesting concept that is! We were played seven short extracts of music, one at a time, first to listen to the piece and imagine the colours, then to hear it again and paint the colours. I loved doing this! I closed my eyes as I listened to the first extract, so that I was closing off my visual sense, and concentrating on my hearing sense. As I listened to the first piece by Debussy, the soft strains of gentle music filled the room, and I could see pale greens, pale blues, light yellow and pale pink, and that's what I painted - no specific shapes, just abstract shapes and colour. The next piece was by "Afro Celts" and was staccato in sound, with strong rhythm and beat, and I could see bright red dots and orange zigzags. For a gentle piece by Wagner I could see the palest pinks, oranges and yellows with a slightly darker pink floating over it, and for "Bulgarian voices" I could see strong vibrant red and orange and deep purple vertical lines, rising up. Beautiful! and a lovely experience to depict them all. But, I asked the tutor, why hadn't she played us some punk, some rock, and some metallica? She thought I was joking, but I was quick to reply that I wasn't! And told her that I paint to rock and dance music, and music with a strong beat, to help me paint and move on with ideas and concepts, painting techniques and dynamic action! It helps me immensely.

Then we got to the "play" stage where we added paint and water to paper, made prints from acrylic paint applied to ceramic tiles and the paper pressed to it for interesting effects and patterns. We all loved doing that, and it was at that stage that I realised that we were all women of varying ages there, and the workshop was run by a woman. I asked then if the tutor has men on her course, because its very rare for me to attend a workshop that hasn't got ANY men on it (and I've been to many!). She said that men were usually bemused by her workshops. I can see why! I think men would find it difficult, as I think a man artist would look at a colour and try to emulate it in paint, whereas the workshop was more focused on what colour do you "feel" or "hear" than "just" see. An interesting concept, and certainly one that would relate to the more sensual painter I think - like a woman Erotic Artist, for instance!!!!! LOL

After lunch, we started our paintings, using the techniques we'd learnt earlier. Some workshops I go home at the end of the day with a finished piece of art, but this wasn't one of those days. Today was a learning day, to be creative, and try different ways of producing art. I used the patterned paper I'd made earlier to add texture in collage to my painting, I used acrylic ink to create swirls of shape, I used oil pastel to make a "wax resist" to the acrylic paint, I used pastel to make texture on top of the paint, and I went home without a finished painting, but with a lot more knowledge learnt, and with blue fingers!

All that is me

After the last blog post I've had a few further discussions with my friend regarding my art and the expectations some people have of what I do. His reply is that he is interested in my vision rather than my interpretation of some body elses. He loves my art but doesn't wish to guide me because I am the artist, not him or anyone else. He feels that the art has to come from me, my mind, and my experiences, for it to be of value. And only through what I produce is my vision revealed. So its my vision and interpretation he is looking for. He feels that if he were to tell me how to paint then it wouldn't be my picture anymore, because I'd just be just like a version of a camera. He wants my name in the corner of the painting to mean something as interpreted my me.

And sometimes I forget this - I know I have to ask someone I'm painting a picture for what they want, what colours they like or don't like, what colour scheme suits them. Some people prefer oils or watercolours, or have an idea of a size in their minds. And I want to please the person who I am hoping to sell a commission to - so it makes sense to check that they're getting what I they want! :) But after I've checked the technical details, its down to me - to my vision of what i see in my mind, given the information a buyer has given me. That is when I produce the "art" as compared to the "image".

And that's the way it is with the latest painting - another Fantasy Fanny - I've got the photos, so I've got all the details of shape and colour. I've got the technical ability, experience, and materials. So, now its down to artistic ability. And over this last weekend I started the painting. Working out the best composition, drawing out the shapes, working out the tones with the lights and darks. Working out the colour scheme to fit into the bedroom its going in (pride of place, over the bed!! no less!!!!) and then................ I look............. and I see the colours before me in the photograph. I see purples and pinks, blues and ................. I put some loud rock music on....................... and start listening to the beat, feel it move within me................. and I look at the colours again........... and start to see them emerge ..................... the pinks merging into oranges, magentas, yellow ochres...........lemon yellow, cobalt blue, pale blue, maroon, purple, sage green.......... the music carries on, building up in the studio, and in me, and the siennas appear............then bright oranges, lime greens, scarlet and turquoise.................. and this is the painting forming. And ..............This is me.............. painting it.

Taking the abstraction a little further

Since I started doing the abstracts of the fannies, I've wondered if I could use abstracts for general erotic art, and have been following those ideas through with the three paintings I have here. One of the reasons I decided to do them, was to take the paintings with me to Erotica to see what sort of general response they get. I know the visitors to Erotica are used to seeing erotic art there, and some people may go with a view to buying a new painting for their wall, so I stand a reasonable chance of selling some, I hope.

The first one is called "Out and proud" and is a blue green and orange torso. I enjoyed painting the various shapes within the shadows and form of the body. The title relates to the state of her nipples!

The second is called "Black as night" and is a bit surreal with the lines on the body but it seems to work somehow - someone said that it looked like the bones in the body, which is an interesting concept!

The third one is lots of interplay between the shapes of the blues, reds, yellows and is called "Wishful thinking" and has a joke within the image, if you can see it??? :)