Liking the Wind: Be Bold!

So I find myself sitting in my hot, muggy studio listening to bangs and booms from thunder and hellacious rains. It's kind of dramatic.

I've embraced Ohio the past two weeks and found myself more accustomed to the humidity, the denseness of the trees and yet finding solace in the openness of the Maumee River. That being said, I still do not love humidity and I am craving the crisp air of the Wyoming mountains.

Home

The class I just finished was a great experience for me... funny I dreaded it before I started! Any time one devotes intense hours so something, be it meditation or plien air drawing as I have done this summer, we grow in ways that were never expected.

In my last job, one of the things I learned is that relationships make the world go 'round. We are all so connected to one another, for better or worse. Color is not so different! The science of color is quite remarkable and I feel as though I've merely skimmed the surface. The sky is not really just one blue and clouds aren't even close to white. The same yellow that makes up the highlights in that perfect cloudy sky is the same one used to neutralize the purple in that pile of rocks in the distance. It's all about the color relationship, what is butted up against it or softly nestled over the top can dramatically change the emotion of a landscape.

No white in there, no sir-ee

The only way to really learn how to use color is to try it out! Yes, intensive hours are helpful but my advice is, Be Bold! Now I can't claim full credit for that. One of my favorite art instructors, Bill Park, used to tell me that. He didn't even go to art school but he's had the soul of an artist his whole life and has made beautiful paintings and prints since the age of 40. The only way to be bold is let yourself make mistakes and not be afraid you'll "ruin" a drawing. Very few things are ever truly ruined. Sounds like it should apply to life, right? Well, mostly. Definitely couldn't hurt.