Challenge Day 11: It's a Gray Area...

"Open Mind" 24 x 24 mixed media on canvas--Collection Artist

“The color of truth is gray.” Andre Gide

In a month of challenge painting devoted to color I felt I had to include my love of grays--particularly cool grays. This may seem a little strange coming from a self proclaimed "colorist" painter. But I'm sure you've heard if you really want your high chroma colors to "stay clean" it helps to balance them with some neutrals.

And for those of you who love neutrals (my Mom for example loves ivory) you already know that "gray" painting can be quite stunning and powerful as well--Just look at this iconic example from Whistler.

"Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1" J. Whistler image from Wikipedia

 And of course we've all seen how beautiful art can look on rich charcoal gray gallery or museum walls. I don't have many grays in my house as a I look around but I do love to wear gray--especially in the fall. There's also some rumor that the Pantone color for 2015 (it was orchid this year) will be some kind of gray (I think it will be olive) but that would be an interesting choice.


Once in awhile I like to take break from traditional representational painting and just play. It's kind of like a yoga retreat for my art brain. It's both relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time.

In this mixed media abstract painting which I've been playing with for a while I knew I wanted to work with some variety of grays along with some high key (pastel) colors. So I used both graphite (a gray I particularly like), gray oil pastel and some metallic steel gray Golden acrylic paint. Thanks again for joining me on my art adventure. Have a wonderful rest of your week!

All That Glitters

Vienna Holiday-36x36-Oil on Canvas SOLD

Last week’s Daily Paintworks’ challenge was deceptively straightforward: Paint something in the style of a painter you admire. Several of my favorite painters came to mind immediately: Van Gogh, Matisse, Hopper, O’Keeffe, Dixon, Bonnard, Cezanne…

Then I was thinking about all the visual inspiration of the holiday season--jewel tones, golds, silvers, nature based imagery, as well as cultural symbols. That train of thought led me to Austrian art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt. Thank you to a new collector from Colorado Springs for the purchase of this!

His vibrant colors, use of flat, dazzling patterns, unique (and sometimes controversial) figural compositions are so contemporary that I have to remind myself that Klimt died before 1920.  Here’s a wonderful example of one of his gilt figures, Hope II.

For the challenge, I choose to paint an abstract and initially planned to add gold leaf which I’ve done previously in some of my abstract paintings. Instead I chose a short cut using Golden brand (I love their metallic paints) acrylic gold paint as the undertone. Not the same effect, but interesting and given gold prices, much less expensive. Then switched to oil paint for all the overall painting.

This painting is also the largest painting I’ve done for a DPW challenge, but I prefer a larger scale (this is 36x36) when I paint abstractly.  In fact, on Cybermonday I bought a new Sorg easel just for larger works. It’s due on Wednesday and I can’t wait to try it! Pics and a review to come. In the meantime, I hope the holiday season brings you much creative joy and inspiration!

P.S. Quick congrats to artist Ms. Dawn Hartigan for winning my November free fine art print contest! Be looking for another contest after the holidays.