Among other things, today's class was an exercise in imagination.
We were shown a painting that Local Artist had done previously "while thinking about Rothko" and seeing a landscape. Now I had never thought of Rothko's paintings as having anything to do with landscapes, but after it was mentioned, I sort of could. The Demo started out with EXTREMELY simple shape definitiion: Two lines dividing the paper into three bars.
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Each of the bars was given an under painting to set the tone (if not the actual hue) of the section: dark, Red and Earth.It still amazes me how much muscle it takes to blend - smear-rub this initial color into the paper.
Next, related hues were swiped over each of the base colors. The hues might be warmer or cooler or a couple of notches over on the color wheel. Some values differences were encouraged to give a sense of depth, direction of light, and a sense of motion.
My first effort. 11 x 14 on Canson Pastel Paper
Can you see a sun setting past a forest?
My second effort 9x12 on Mi Tientes. Looks like a cooler evening, somehow.
