Saturday, December 18, 2010

FELT THE NEED FOR SOME COLOR

I am  a very strong visual learner and in recent years have discovered that color has become very important to me. However, my usual media for art work is water color or colored pencils. Not conducive to bright colors -- at least my style isn't so far. You have to work really hard with colored pencils to get depth of color.  So  every now and then it is not unusual for me to get a strong urge to use bold, bright colors on something.

At the end of our cruise last month, and after doing five or six of my usual  paintings, the urge for strong color hit me again.  So I started a piece which I suppose you would call abstract art.  I finished it last week and this is how it ended up:



I called it.......... ...       .........................."After the Rain"

The title came very naturally to me as I worked with it.  I was thinking of how everything is bright, clean, sharp  and shiny after a good, cleansing rainfall.  At least that is how it is for us in Southern California.  After months of dry weather, the hillsides turn from brown to green and in the spring the bright, almost gaudy flowers burst forth.

I thought I had finished this piece about a week earlier, but after I had settled on the title, I decided I needed some rain drops in it.  Typical!  I am never satisfied with any piece of work I do and always want to fiddle with it in some way.  My black pens ran out of ink so who knows where it would have ended.!!!

Anyway:  here is the piece BEFORE I put the raindrops in .  So you can compare the two.


What do you think?  With or without raindrops?  If you decide to reply to my question, I would really like to know why -- too busy, --adds to the overall effect -- if it has raindrops in it it isn't really abstract -- or whatever.  All you artists out there, feel free to comment.  I just can't judge my own paintings objectively.  May be in six months or so I will be far enough removed from them to decide which I like best.  These are approximately 6 x 3 inches done in Prisma color pencils on bristol card.

11 comments:

snafu said...

I judge any painting by how much 'lookability' it has. If you can return to it again and again and see more or simply reaffirm what you saw first off it is one I lke, no matter waht the subject. Yours has a high lookability to it.
To be honest I prefer it without the raindrops, rain over here is a dismal affair and it is just damp after the rain in Wiltshire.

Elizabeth said...

Chris, these are really lovely and its great that that creative urge to use colour is coming to the fore in them. Its so good for us all to be stirred out of our comfort zones once in a while. I like the one with the raindrops the best - they somehow give the piece a context and perameter.x

Gillian Mowbray said...

This is fun and I too prefer the one with raindrops - they bring movement to the piece.
Great to see some colour when everything outside here is in startling white!

jabblog said...

I'm no artist but I prefer the original one. Somehow the raindrops look a little cartoonish and detract from the vibrancy and impact of your work.
(Sorry, don't mean to offend . . . )

mrsnesbitt said...

I love them both but like the raindrops - you are the artist so you decide what you want in a painting. No snow? lol I jest - just thought we could ship some over - had a second coming here! Of snow - lol!

ChrisJ said...

Jabblog: Absolutely no offense taken. That is just the kind of comment I like. It helps me look at the piece through different eyes, and I think your comment is very valid. When I was writing for publication I belonged to a writer's group with some quite well known writers. We had to bring a piece of our work in finished condition and then read it to the group and each one critiqued it. There were six or seven of us in the group. As a very young and new writer THAT was agony! But boy, did I learn a lot. So I've learned to appreciate constructive criticism. I still haven't decided which piece I like better.

kaybee said...

I am no judge of art, I only know what I like -- and I really like the one without the raindrops. It's much 'cleaner' and not so muddled, to me. I especially like your initials logo - is that new?

Rune Eide said...

And colours you found! Immediately it reminded me of the latter half of the sixties and the shapes, form and colours that were around than (A bit "Magical, mystical tour").

A pity that you miss my excellent posts! ;-) No, I don't use the "Followers" ad-in in the sidebar, though when I open the Dashboard there seems to be a number of them anyhow. I don't know how they join, but I don't recognize half of them. I prefer to use my own blogroll in the sidebar.

duopastorale said...

They are great!! It's hard to decide but I like the drops :)
This I do...

Anonymous said...

I had forgotten all about doing these kinds of things. I used to start with a box or a circle. If it was a box-start then all lines were straight with right-angles. If it started with a circle, one line always curved and never ended but continued until enough was enough and you ran it off the edge. Then go back and fill-in the spaces.

Tumblewords: said...

Love the colors and shapes - it's a piece full of energy. I like the drops (without the movement marks). Each person sees something else, to be sure. Nice work!