“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 🙂
A section of the sand dunes posted this day last year on Studio 365: Day 191
for Worldwatercolormonth Day 10
I couldn’t resist painting this summer bouquet of
lavender, margaretas, cosmos and photinia
picked from the garden today.
Looking up on the Admiralty Trail in the Pacific Spirit Regional Park in Vancouver on a beautiful Spring day in April this year. You can see more photos of these spectacular leafy canopies from our trail walk in spring forward fall back, and the same trail decked out in glorious autumnal colors last October in Boundaries.
A watercolour painted this morning listening to the news from
Dallas, Minnesota and Baton Rouge.
In remembrance.
Chapter 7 in Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination is all about composition.
“Whether drawn as a crisp outline or sketchy…the result is the same:
a landscape which you evolved from nothing; and only a beginning to the possibilities”
This was certainly the case today particularly using the “Three Line Sketch”, which Tony describes as his “secret weapon…the ultimate planning tool for watercolour.”
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
“When you pick up your brush it should come to life in your hands” writes Tony Smibert at the beginning of Chapter 6 in Painting Landscapes from your Imagination. He continues, “Somehow we have to free the brush so that it will dance across the page as if it were alive in our fingertips rather than trapped by them.”
This second part of Genie of the brush is all about Making Marks, the title of the chapter, using the four simple steps of Dotting, Dabbing, Dragging and Rolling, with my brushes hopefully dancing across the page.
The best part of this exercise was following Tony Smibert’s suggestion to “free movement to a rhythm or a beat.” I took this to heart and dotted, dabbed, dragged and rolled to one of my favourite Jazz pieces, Blue Monk by the great, late Thelonius Monk, the genius of the keys to match the genie of the brush. It was also the perfect opportunity for another “Over my shoulder” video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.
Over my Shoulder VI – Making Marks
One of yesterday’s landscapes that followed the exercise using a combination of dots, drags, dabs and rolls. Definitely a good day 🙂
You can find links to all of my other Over My Shoulder videos on
From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part Three
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.
thechangingpalette 