Thursday, March 20, 2008

Spring is in the Air

I always get some great inspiration for colors when I'm driving. Last week I made the drive (yet again) from Tampa to New York and back. Actually going by way of Miami so I spent the night in Georgia. The next days drive up through theCarolinas and Virginia was incredible. The new green of spring was starting to come out, the dogwoods were blooming...... But it was the green more than anything, it gave me some ideas of mixing some new pastels. It is that earthy brightness which was so nice, it is not an electric yellow green but still quite bright. I do realize that some of that brightness is do to the contrast with the duller yellow ochres of the dead winter grasses. So I've just gotten some transparent yellow iron oxide pigment to use for these- it also makes a wonderful watercolor. I'll post some pictures when I get some samples together.
In the same vein I saw the Courbet show at the Met in New York. I have to say that I am not a big fan of his "smoother" paintings. But when he gets out the palette knife, especially for those sunny landscapes, they are great to look at. The ranges of scumbling and overlay that he gets away with is great painting indeed.

1 comment:

Judith Reidy said...

I have been looking to replenish my pastels as I have been working on preparing for two shows in which I will need over 60 paintings.

I have been using Nupastels for undercolor and Rembrandts and some others for over color. However, I found Rembrandts sometimes are too hard in some darks and other brands crumbly in darks. I would very much like to try your landscape set of 50, which seems to have some nice greens for my geography. I also would like to get your thunderstorm set. I love skies and clouds. I am hoping your darks don't crumble. Is crumbling a storage issue or a humidity issue. I live in a climate where it is moist and warm in summer but dry inside the winter. Please advise.
http://www.judithreidy.com