A trip to northern Indiana lead us to plenty of rural Amish areas. A sunny day with some deep shadows of great shapes resulted in a lot of picture taking time. I love to connect shapes in a painting that really are separate, and it was easy to do here with all the darks. No actual black was used because I wanted to capture what I felt was the 'color' of the area. Various colors were charged together to establish the strong darks that read as black. This painting is about nine years old, but I still enjoy looking at it because of all the contrasts and colors.
Any color that looks really dark in your palette wells can be used in combination with others to make a good dark. The trick is to let the water in the paint do the work of mixing, (rather than mixing it all in the palette) and let little gravity do the blending. As soon as the brush starts stirring things up, it can get real ugly. Make the paint very, very dark but use enough water to allow the paint to flow into other wet paint on the paper. Enjoy the spontaneity of it all. It's like magic.
"AMISH WHEELS" Transparent Watercolor on 140# CP Arches 21 x 14"
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5 comments:
A unique perspective on this subject - I like the composition and the colors!!
This is amazing! Your subject matter is so varied, always a treat to come here.
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Sandy, I am enjoying the trip through your archive of paintings. The black and white paintings are just terrific. Love those contrasts but especially the skin tones in the photographer and the connection of shape and shadow of the bicycle wheels. No wonder I come back frequently, there is always so much to enjoy. Invariably, I miss some nuance or texture in the paintings I've viewed before.
What a wonderful trip down memory lane you are guiding us on!!!
I love the contrast in these last two. You have captured that bright sunny day feel...and the compositions are so unique. Super stuff!!
I really like the contrast and WOW factor of this one!
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