Experiments in Abstract Watercolor

I've been taking an abstract watercolor class which is challenging for me because I am a realist and not an abstract painter at all. But it has been fun experimenting and loosening up in my work. Seeing abstract work doesn't come easy to me, I found a good starting point is to take an image or scene and attempt to abstract it. These two pieces are from reference photos I took at an aquarium of jellyfish swimming in a tank. The sepia toned top piece is by far my favorite of anything I have done in this class. I like the shapes, dark and light values and the lines I have added. 

As a class we are focusing on: 

Composition • Value • Color • Line • Shape • Form

As well as techniques using watercolors, acrylic inks, watercolor pencils, watercolor papers, yupo papers, 

The lionfish is also a reference photo from an aquarium. I have experimented with just the patterns of the fish itself. Not sure what I am going to do with the bottom piece, the negative shapes of the lionfish. I am still contemplating changes. 

These next two pieces are also the jellyfish swimming around at the aquarium. The top is the first layers of color and the second piece is after more colors were added. I like seeing them together, both are really fun exercises.

This watercolor is of seaweed flowing underwater. I played with four color schemes (clockwise): Monochromatic, Analogous, Double Complementary and Complementary. I think I would like to try this one again but without the dividing lines, letting them flow into each other. 

For this exercise our instructor brought in slices and leaves of green and purple cabbages. We looked at shapes, how lines intersect and form shapes and patterns. In my experimenting and painting, I am finding that I often use colors right from the tube or slightly mixed with other colors. Apparently I like a bright colorful palette.

 

Last one for this post is working on Legion brand Yupo with acrylic inks and watercolor added afterward. I am still trying to figure out this Yupo surface which is very slick. It accepts inks and watercolors very differently than regular paper as it doesn't absorb and takes a long time to dry.

The Color Wheel and A Harmonious Color Drawing

 I have been looking at colors and color relationships and decided to do create a colored pencil color wheel. The colors in the outer ring are the 1) three complementary colors: red, yellow and blue, 2) three secondary colors: orange, green and violet, and 3) twelve tertiary colors: red orange, yellow orange, yellow green, blue green, blue violet and red violet.

The second ring of color is the tints of each color, this is white added to each color. The third ring of color is a layer of black pencil added to each color to create the shade. The inner ring of color is the mixture of each complementary which are directly across from each other on the color wheel. Mixing complementary colors creates colorful dark values.

I am working on a new drawing of cabbages in which I am using only analogous colors. Analogous colors are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. I am keeping my palette cool and working with colors on the color wheel between blue violet and green. I started with a blue violet to blue green underpainting and am working the green hues over the blue.

The initial drawing stage took quite a bit of time as I wanted to draw in each highlighted vein. I am striving for abstraction and movement in the veins and the overall piece.

I Could Paint Red Shoes for a Year!

These photos are from day three of the workshop. The top photo is just the luscious red shoes in cadmium red with a little thalo green mixed in, the second photo I've added my grays and green shadows. I'm not quite sure about the green shadows so I'm going to go back to the studio and work with the colors. In the bottom photo I'm mixing up my color combinations, remember in the workshop we are only allowed to use two complementary colors and white. Somehow it made it easier for me to paint with a limited palette, not being a painter I get confused when I have to mix up too many color combinations. I love the lines, shapes and colors of my red shoes and told Mimo I could paint them for a whole year!

Complementary Color Painting Workshop

This weekend I'm taking a three-day oil painting workshop at the Providence Art Club with Mimo Gordon Riley whose work and style I admire because she paints so beautifully with a limited palette. Our assignment for the workshop is to bring two complementary colors of oil paint plus white, one pair of shoes and three canvases. I am the only student in the class who chose the red/green combination, everyone else chose yellow/violet or orange/blue. We began by taking our two colors and mixing them together in 5 or 6 steps to make a range of grays from that point we added increments of white to make a range of light and dark values (my color mixture palette is hanging off my easel in the top photo). As you probably noticed I decided on a kick-ass pair of super high heels to paint (my students know I love colorful shoes) but I chose these shoes because of the angles and lines they form compositionally. Not being a painter and loving color, I added color right away. Most of the students began with neutral values and then brought colors into the painting. I'm going to try that today on day two of the workshop. Notice the bottom photo of everyone's work, all different and so amazing. I particularly like the little girl's sneakers and the purple high heels.