For my painting a day, I try to paint a variety of things. I have recently painted three small artists trading cards and also some florals which I haven’t done lately. In keeping with this need for variety I decided to paint an abstract. Of course this coincided with a query. I was asked by one of my collectors to use more brown. That made me laugh because I’m sure she meant well with that comment but I will tell you, customers are very hard to please. Most of the time I don’t usually try because the work suffers.
I had this little ampersand 5 by 7 panel and decided to see if I could paint an abstract with some browns. After only a minute or two I could see it wasn’t as abstract as I had planned but I went with it. I could see flags and trees blowing in the wind, then I saw what appeared to be a reflection in the bottom portion so I allowed that to stay, and painted some more reflective type shapes. When its all said and done I think it looks like a city street that just had a bit of rain, the wind is still blowing pretty hard and everything is shimmery.
So here is my painting with a bit of brown. Speaking of brown….I don’t know if this is happening in your part of the world but everyone here is painting their interior walls a color of brown that is somewhere between cafe latte and beige. My guess is: this is why there was request for more browns in my paintings.
Folks you don’t have to match your walls to your paintings. Be brave buy something YOU like, not something your decorator likes.Art is supposed to touch you personally, if you’e just looking for coordinating decor, you are missing out on so many wonderful paintings.
Artist’s TIP: if you want to paint watercolor on this ground you will have to use the watercolor almost full strength out of the tube as the surface is very slick.Also you will have to seal it with a spray varnish. I think its made for oils or acrylics but I’ll try watercolor on anything.
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4 comments:
Shanti,
Clayboard Textured is for watercolor specifically, it is fun to apply and lifts beautifully. I use it for petroglyph "tiles" and they are good sellers, the customers really are drawn to the rich colors you can easily achieve with this stuff. I haven't tried the panels that are clayboard smooth, they are more for acrylics I think.
I agree with your pronouncement about not matching every painting with the color of your walls, but that seems to be the current thoughts on the matter, and it is most prevalent. So, keep on educating, it probably won't make a big difference in sales but might clue somebody in accidentally. The biggest nuisance right now is a customer (and there are more than one!)who doesn't like the matboard around a watercolor; if it is a neutral they want it a color to match their couch; if it is a color they want a neutral...no sense whatsoever about what will sell! Sigh.
Susan
tell me a little about those tiles... I don't know what they are..
Shanti,
The clayboard for watercolor comes in pieces that are 4x4, 5x7, 8x10, etc. and these smaller sizes make what looks like art tiles when painted. Please see my blog entry for today, which explains this and shows some examples. They are great to work with!
Susan http://wcbysusanroper.blogspot.com/
I see a group of galloping horses...they were there as soon as I opened up the post!
Brown has always been a favourite colour of mine. It is in fashion at the moment, but I have used brown in decoration in one form or another all my life.
It is extremely restful for me...the colour of Mother Earth!
Thank you!
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