Colour inspirations

Beautiful brisk November day here today, and I'm itching to paint

But needed a bit of inspiration for colours, so I headed out in to the woods.

One thing that caught my eye was how Birch bark looked in the sunlight.

{Bark, Bark, Beautiful Bark}

On this Birch tree below had no pinks in it, but all lovely grays and greens

{And I love the shadows from the pine tree} 

Found some inspiration and now on to painting

I want to attempt to paint a winter scene which I haven't done much of before, so this will be 

interesting to see where it will end. 

What kind of colours do you find in the trees around you?

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More colours... thoughts about colour

As most of you know, I'm a bit nutters about turquoise

{among oranges, yellows and light greens to name a few}

 

I have never been a huge fan of pastels, especially during the 80's and the 90's

just thinking about it makes me gag, yes pastels can make me gag

{and lets not forget neon colours, OMG that just turns my stomach in a loop and half}

 

But now, this past year or so, I have grown fond of some pastels and please note "some" as most of them are still a hard sale on me and only very few makes me stop in my tracks to take a second look.

 

I love colour but at the same time I love soft whites, or white on white.

 

Any how, two evenings ago I sat out back and enjoyed the air after it had rained and the clouds started to break up and the sunset was amazing.  It was not hugely colourful or anything like bright tropical colours, bit it was soft and very soothing looking to me. 

 

And there was again a few of the pastels I don't mind.

And it made me think about how colours play with our moods, how our likes and dislikes for them changes with the years, how they bring back memories or dreams. How amazing effect they have on human behaviour, physiology of it...

 

Colour theory in art school was one of my favourite subjects.

 

What is your favourite colour and why?

What are the colours cant you stand?

And what is the first colour you find your self more drawn too, be it with art, fashion or decor?

 

So that's my take on colours for today and I may or may try to paint something from these pictures.



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Just something blue...

Just some colours, textures and shapes I like

{wish those doors would work on our house}

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I think it's here...

ink and water colours on water colour paper

Yes, it must be!  Because snow is melting, mud all over, bits of dead grass is peaking out from under the snow and the driveway is clear...  Oh and some of the birds have come back from their vacation down south, and we have had two days of sunny days, blue skies and it has been above +4c {+7c if you stand out on the deck right next to the wall}.  And one very clear sign that spring is here, is that I have to wash Charlies paws every day after our walks.

And Easter is here, lovely Easter and how I love this season and in a way to me Easter is more of a beginning of the year that new years.  Everything is taking on a new life, animals return and wake up, plants start to grow and things feel fresh and light {people look happier, everyone venture outside, breath and enjoy the sun}.  I also like to bring in traditional Scandinavian Easter decorations to our home, and one of my favourite is the beautiful coloured feathers on branches.

New times and now I feel more motivated to do things, and its things that I have been putting off for many reasons through the winter months.  Last week was a great example, our daughter and our dog were sick and my foot was busted...  Now colds gone and foot feeling much better, and huge thank you to all of you who visited and left comments and sent emails.  So now feeling better, we have been out and about and included a visit to the library and I think I might have found a bit too much inspiration, lol, as I pretty much emptied one whole section in there. Oh I forgot to add the three novels I'm reading too right now.  Lovely and fun stack never less.

Question, is it possible to have too much inspiration?  All I'm saying is that I always have a ton of ideas for art and decorating projects, a handful on the go and lots I want to do. 
And some times I hit the wall and I need inspiration to be able to let all that stuff come out of me and down on paper or canvas.

Just some paint on my water colour pallet and below is a design idea I have been wanting to do, been stuck in my mind for months and now finally out on paper.  Still work in progress.

And I finished a small painting for an upcoming art show, will post that later.

'Break Free'
ink on Strathmore water colour paper, cold press

And I have done some spring cleaning in my art portfolio blog, and I don't know how I have been able to miss this, but so many people have left comments in there and I feel terrible that I never noticed them before now.  Read them all and really thank you so much for all your comments in there, thank you it totally made my day and I will check in there for now on : ) 

You can click here to take you to my other blog.

Happy Spring & Happy Easter

everyone, I hope you find lots of new inspiration, colours, light and warm weather... 

Kiss winter bye bye and say Hello spring!!

 

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workshop & relaxing

To some a workshop and relaxing don't go hand in hand, but to me... This was totally relaxing and something I have been needing for a very long time, just a day of doing nothing else but art and not having to worry about everything else.  In fact it was a bit too relaxing for me in the beginning, or it might had something to do with that I showed up all sleep deprived and just totally mentally exhausted.  So it was hard to get going for me, but after two cups of tea and one very quick nap {yes, I fell a sleep while the instructor was talking to the group and thankfully she knew it was not her doing but my crazy life}... 

The workshop was Colour Mixing {part of Michael Wilcox School of Colour}, I done all of this before in art school {colour theory}, but that was many, many, many moons ago and we all need a brush up with things from time to time.  And I really enjoyed it after getting finally going. 
Picture below is during lunch hour, many still working on...

And what a great mess it was, paper and paints all over the place.

 

The second part of the day, we all painted and used some of the colour mixing techniques from the morning.  Wasn't sure if I would have had time to start something in acrylics, so I kept using my water colours instead.  I always like to use blues and browns when I mix my greys and or making things as dark as black {I never use black in paintings other than in ink for lines, or paint for painting the sides of canvases}.  Here I used ink for the lines, but other than that I used three different blues and two different browns.  Still wondering if I should leave it as is or add colours to the houses?

Now just thinking about it, I cant wait for the next workshop in the new year...  Because I will need my mental break again soon, time for me and time for art.  Thinking I might try encaustic next time, never done it before and something I would love to try out.

 

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Not insane & new colours...

 I feel like I should apologize ahead of time, because this will be a long post...  Sorry my friends, but so much has happen in such a short period and I just cant miss most of it.  Well I'll try to keep this post as upbeat as possible, so with my best efforts I'll hold the rather boring and totally crazy bits out.

Chapter 1...  {just kidding!!} 

First I ran away for a while, yes, I packed the bags, kids and dog in to the car and we took of on a mini vacation.  I Really Needed This as I was Very Close to Lose It and Go Insane!!!

We went down to Toronto to see family and friends, and while the kids stayed with aunts and uncles.  Mr B and I were able to take advantage of some time and we celebrated our short yet much needed freedom {sorry kids, I do love you like no other, but sometimes mum just needs a break}.   Later on the kids and I went exploring the city and we all had a fantastic time, I don't know what it is, and even with Toronto being very big city, with traffic from hell and always super busy,  I always feel home there.  So much so, that on this trip there I didn't even honk, yell or show of my finger puppet skills to other drivers while inching through thick traffic.  I even smiled at a lady who clearly did not approve of my driving.

Any hooo, now feeling much better with having had a break from everything, seeing dear family and friends.  I feel like I got my energy back, so today after my daughter finally went back to school I went out. {okay, I will tell you only one down side to things, our daughter is still fighting bad head aches and we still don't have much help or answers to the cause.  So she spends most of her time sleeping, crying, screaming and not being able to enjoy much of life}.
But today, her head ache was much better under control so she went to school and I finally was able to go out for a really long walk.  And I took my time looking at everything and I loved it, took some pictures as you can see above.

And then I came home, and by the door was a parcel...  It was thee Parcel!!!  It finally came, my birthday gift from Mr B, he had placed an order a few weeks back.   The parcel was my new watercolours {this is the part where you should hear angels sing}...

Picked up my box, went inside and just looked at the box first then ran in the kitchen made my self a cup of tea, because this was going to take time.  I wanted to savour every min of this.  Opened the box and Oh, looked it over in every angle I could then gently opened the palette box {now more or just lot louder singing and followed by a bright glow}...  You know, this is a huge deal to me, last time I bought my most wanted watercolours was in...  well lets say, very many, many many moons ago {my first year in art school}, and since then I was first a starving student, then starving artist, then mum x2 and having kids I just could not let my self spend too much on my new set...

But I did dream!!!

And here they are now, and did I ever savour each moment of unwrapping each little individual pans.  It was like I went through a fancy chocolate box and was able to eat every one of them on my own {of course best part was no pounds gained, yes hips you're safe}

And here they are, my new Schmincke Horadam Water colour set {24 full pans} and if there is any water colours I swear by and totally recommend, then these are it!  They are made of the finest minerals and pigments.  And they last {I still have a few colours left since those school years} and they are fantastic to use. 

BUT!!! no matter how happy and excited I am.   There is only two things that I would like to point out with this product.  The palette box is really nasty sharp on some edges!!!
Nothing like a real box of chocolates.
Taking those pans out so I could take the papers off, was pure hell and I ended up with three cuts.  So be careful if you get them, but remember after you get them out, cut some flesh and finally get them back in the pan again... Its all worth it.

And the second thing I wanted to point out, is that the palette case is very heavy and might not fit in to all pockets or purses.  And even I think I might have rethink it before our next canoe trip, or just use my very old palette box, seen on left...  {I guess no direction needed, the state of it gave it way on its own}.

I love my old palette case, it has been with me everywhere thinkable.  Oh and before I end here, I just want to take moment to look at the new one, this is the last time it will look this clean...  Correction, that was the last time it looked that clean, as you can see I just had to try out some of the colours.  Also wanted to show you what they are like. 

So there it is, I ran away and came back, didn't go insane {yet} and I finally have my favourite watercolours again.  Mr B sure knows how to spoil me silly, thank you baby!!!  I just hope you're ready for all the painting I have planned to do...

Happy painting everyone and keep your fingers safe!!!

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I spy with my eye, yellow

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