What a difference a few months can make! In the classes and workshops I've attended over the past four years, I always learned something new, but often left feeling that I was missing something. Teachers prescribe color palettes, mediums, painting supports and brushes but few tell you "why." I learned at an early age that I am a kinesthetic learner - meaning I need a multi-modality approach and it helps to understand why!
Over the past nine months or so, I've tailoring my own curriculum to find some of the answers. I have an extensive background in curriculum development, so I've been busy researching and taking workshops in person and online that I feel are more suited to my individualized endeavor. I've also been studying art history and theory - and realizing the importance of classical art training as a means to establish the building blocks of my knowledge to grow as an artist.
Over the past months, I've been learning more about form and temperature (as opposed to just value and color). I've been learning more about the value of sketching and cast drawing (Barque) and the various ways to paint: open and closed grisalle, alla prima, glazing, chiaroscuro. Art has taken on a whole new light - literally.
Two of the most useful things I've learned is the concept of simultaneous contrast and the benefit of using a limited palette.
In the painting to the left, I used the Zorn Palette limted only to white, cadmium red light, yellow ochre, and ivory black. I added Gamblin's radiant blue (a cool convenience color I discovered from Tony Pro). 
In the painting to the right, I extended it a bit, adding ultramarine, alizarin and transparent oxide red, indian yellow and cadmium yellow, and played around with the concept of simultaneous contrast, something that is intriguing to me and excellently explained here. I also learned that just as placing compliments together influence and enhance each other, they can be mixed to intentionally dull something you want to downplay - something I find ironic and have coined "intentional mud."
The next step in my journey is a foray into plein-air painting. I met a group of plein-air painters (Anne Blair Brown Workshop) on our little island here in February. There were about 15 painters (including my facebook buddy Nancy Rhodes Harper) scattered about the street and they looked like they were having fun, so I stopped to say hello. Long story short, they invited me to join them during their morning discussion after I found them studio cover due to rain. One of them asked me if I was a plein air painter, and I groaned, "No! I don't have time." Well, 6 weeks later I bought a plein-air pochade and started another learning opportunity. As serendipity would have it, I found another plein-air group forming on the island, so I am happy about that!
Next stop? Provence, of course! I start this journey in about 10 days and will be painting in and around Seillans, France with three artists friends and my husband. Stay tuned!
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