Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Mixing Exercise 18

Exercise 18 - Grays and neutrals from yellow and violet with orange-yellow and mixed bright blue-violet. Winsor Lemon, French Ultramarine, and Permanent Rose.



This exercise and the next are like the last two, replacing the Winsor Lemon with Cadmium Yellow.

Today I spent some time reading David Rourke's article Color and color mixing. From there I slipped into the Munsell color system and reading his A Color Notation.

I'm watching "Frida" while wrapping things up here.

From Wiki:

Drawing on personal experiences, including her marriage, her miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo's works often are characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits which often incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. She insisted, "I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality."
...

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, whose work she admired, asking him for advice about pursuing art as a career. He recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her artistic development and began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Frida's mother.
...

Later, in his autobiography, Diego Rivera wrote that the day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, adding that, too late, he had realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for
her.

"Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas y Colibrí"
("Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Humming-bird")

Wikipedia contributors. "Frida Kahlo." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 May. 2010. Web. 6 May. 2010.

4 comments:

  1. your colour exercises are just wonderful and I applaud your stamina.. and I know you are busy :)
    I was entranced by the film when I saw it, so exotic and some favourite music. I like some of her work, not all, but having studied women in painting, her part in changing the perception of women artists and what they paint is crucial. An amazing woman.

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  2. John, the difference between the cool greys of the last exercise and the warm greys of this one -- deriving from the difference in the yellow -- is very visible and it's exciting!

    Aren't the greys just lovely? Who would have thought it would be worth doing so much work to mix grey? But they are beautiful colours and the things which must be going on between your eyes and your brain when you look at colours in the world now can only be imagined.

    How were the thunderstorms? (How were the greys? :-)

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  3. Yes Val, a busy little solitary bee. ;-)

    I'm enjoying these exercises more as I go along. My book of charts is growing!

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  4. Indeed, Katharine, the grays are with me. Today I studied the bark of a beech tree, picking out the colors and values of grays.

    I ran across a web image of a painting last night--gray and blue skies, trees with nearly black bark and yellow flowers. I thought the colors might have fit into my exercise 17 palette.

    I will soon have more similar thoughts to share in an upcoming post.

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