“You can learn from teachers, fellow painters, books, videos, seminars and so on. But you won’t really understand the medium until you can use it. Hence, the key to understanding is
practice, practice, practice.”
Tony Smibert, from Chapter 1: Painting Landscapes from your Imagination
Taking this advice to heart today was just that, as I finished Chapter 8
with more of Tony’s exercises in composition, color and confidence.
Today I’m back on my journey through Tony Smibert’s
Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, my project for July.
Chapter 8: Color Confidence.
“The decision making processes for a painting should remain with the artist,” writes Tony. “When you can rely on experience and intuition to guide you, you set yourself free to experiment. And the truly creative person is empowered by freedom. Your color choices are your own.”
Definitely feeling empowered by freedom today, and what a good feeling it is too 🙂
I couldn’t resist painting this summer bouquet of
lavender, margaretas, cosmos and photinia
picked from the garden today.
In Chapter 2 of Painting Landscapes from your Imagination Tony Smibert describes the Nature of Watercolor:
“The essence of painting in watercolour is to understand and work with the simple mysteries
of suspension, settling and drying, which takes place everytime we lay down a wash.”
He then adds perhaps the perfect mantra for watercolour painting:
“There are no rules in watercolour, only consequences”
Today’s exercises, which are full of “consequences”, some more successful than others, finishes Chapter 6 with more washes, dots, dabs and the addition of knife work to remove the dried paint creating white highlights from the underlying paper.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 6
Let me begin by wishing all of my American friends a very happy 4th of July
Today’s quote is taken from Chapter 6: Making Marks in Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination: “There are no rules, no right or wrong ways to use your brushes, and no limitations to your creativity once you release this “genie of the brush.”
I think the genie was definitely released today
as I followed the exercises that combined washes and brush work.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 4
I would like to dedicate today’s post to the memory of the great humanitarian, Nobel Prize winner and holocaust survivor Eli Weisel who died at the age of 87 on Saturday, and to the memory of 13 year old Hallel Yaffe Ariel who was stabbed to death four days ago while she slept inside her house in Kiryat Arba, in a crime that is beyond comprehension. May they both rest in peace.
Todays title is taken from Tony Smibert’s Introduction to Painting Landscapes from your Imagination. The book is a joy to read and full of a wonderfully inspiring text from which I will take my favourite quotations over the next few weeks. The full quote today reads:
“When a watercolour emerges from the wash, it does so imbued with possibilities.”
This exercise is entitled Sunset over the Valley and combines the various washes from the last two days, namely flat, graduated and variegated. Adding the graduated sunset wash in the top right hand corner was a quiet revelation. It involved turning the board, wetting the sky up to the edge of the mountains and then dropping in the red which then charged the wetted area – oh what joy! Light red was recommended for this but not having any I combined brilliant red with burnt sienna with a satisfying result I feel.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 3
I would like to dedicate today’s post to the memory of those who lost their lives so cruelly in Baghdad and Bangladesh.
Arizona remembered I 2.7.16
The title of today’s post is taken from Tony Smibert’s quote in Exercise 3 of Landscapes of the Imagination, which I am working through this month, “Be your own painter and adapt what you want to your own work”. This exercise is all about graduated washes and includes maneuvering the board upside-down as the secondary washes are applied.
The quote was all the inspiration I needed to apply the exercise to memories of our memorable trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, where we stopped before continuing on to that never-to-be-forgotten visit to Antelope Canyon.
That night we walked on the McDowell Sonoran Reserve after sunset where the Saguaro cacti were dramatically silhouetted against the evening sky. It was thanks to Laura Macky that we included this in our visit and her wonderful post Painted Saguaro is one that I recommend you all visit. Thanks once again Laura 🙂
Arizona remembered II 2.7.16
Worldwatercolormonth Day 2
Happy First of July everyone, and to my friends in Canada a very Happy Canada Day once again. Today is the perfect day to start a new project and what better project could there be than a month of watercolor painting as part of World Watercolor Month, thanks to Charlie O’Shields at Doodlewash.
This time a year ago I was part way through all the watercolour exercises in the book by the great Australian artist Tony Smibert, Lessons from the Great Masters, which my dear friend and always-inspiring Debi Riley happily introduced me to on her blog. Some of you may well have followed my journey on thechangingpalette through those four weeks last year. I thought for these next four I would work my way through another of Tony Smibert’s books, Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, something which I often love to do.
So for Day 1 of World Watercolor month I undertook the first exercises in the book and am now eagerly looking forward to making progress in the coming four weeks.
I will certainly endeavour to paint everyday, but on those days when I’m visiting my beautiful granddaughter, which will always take precedence over everything else, I will plan to post some of my favourite paintings from last year’s Lessons from the Great Masters. Today’s exercise working with washes was an encouraging start to the month. I hope you agree 🙂
a midsummer’s day bouquet 20.06.16
The Monday Bouquet makes a special return appearance today
with which to celebrate the summer solstice.
For those of you new to thechangingpalette I posted a bouquet every Monday during 2014
which you can enjoy here at A Year of Monday Bouquets.
…meets the curve of black
whilst red stands
sentinel
A second in response to this week’s Photo Challenge from Cheri who asks us to:
“Find inspiration in the curves around you.”
thechangingpalette 