Dear readers,
Today I left the art journal for a moment: because there are two pages, it is difficult to make a composition. Plus: the journal gets thicker and thicker, it is difficult to keep it ‘open’. Don’t know how long this is going to work out.
So today I worked on a piece of paper again. Simply trying out new colours ( a lot of pink – magenta mixed with white, phtalo blue red shade, quinacridone nickel azo gold), and new ways of painting. Today I painted much with a small brush (while I usually paint with my fingers or with the foam brushes.) I am very much in a fase of experimentation.
Bye!
Simone
Just checked, and we’re 6 hours different from each other. We’re probably 5 (or maybe 7!) hours different for a week or two of the year because we change to and from daylight savings on different dates.
No worries about your English—you express yourself beautifully.
Your mention of ‘will’ and ‘going to’ makes me laugh. I assume I use them correctly, but I couldn’t tell you with any certainty what the subtle ‘rules’ are (and I am a teacher who deals with language-based learning disabilities! that said, my area of focus isn’t grammar).
Thanks for your discussion about composition. Now I have a better idea of how composition factors in, and I can see where the journal would present obstacles, since composition happens organically and as a result of a free flow of painting—the art journal presents physical interruptions to that free flow.
Hi Dotty!
Didn’t know we are only 5 hours away from each other. I thought it was six. It is now daylight saving-time here sinds two days – but I always get confused if this means one hour more or one hour less between the two sides of the ocean. And do you have that too in the States? I guess so..
About the limitations: it means for me that the journal is obviously split in two, because of the fold. And the more I paint in this journal, the thicker its get, the more difficult it gets to fold it open. So: it is not such an ideal surface to paint on, if I want to have more ‘freedom’ when it comes to composition. Bigger shapes are difficult if I run into the fold all the time. Then I am more or less bound to smaller shapes (guess this is very bad English).
(by the way: my daughter is struggling with her English lessons: now she is learning the difference between: ‘I will do this’, or ‘I am going to do this’. Probably this kind of subtleties I do not get very well either, which I find more and more irritating.)
About the composition: I more or less paint freely, shapes arise freely, then I add lines and other dots and such kind of things. I am not thinking about composition so much on beforehnd.
Yes, I think that I pay attention to composition while I am painting, but I think this happens ‘on the go’, I don’t force myself to it, I don’t ‘impose’ it. I think. Difficult to get this clear though. I think composition ‘happens’ more while I paint. If I am lucky.
nd: in the painting above I don’t see much composition (in the sense of a lot of different shapes or colorfields or whatever. It is more of a pattern: only small shapes, not so much else. Which was why I did not put it on sale: I am not satisfied enough with the overall composition… 😉
bye!
Simone
Now I’m back from the gym!
How does composition come into being for you? Do you start with any kind of composition idea in mind? Do you give attention to composition off and on the whole time you are painting? Do you paint freely for most of the time, and then only ‘impose’ composition near the end? OR … do you approach composition in ways that I’m not even thinking about??!
No matter what, I very much enjoy and celebrate your experimentation.
One fun part of having a 5-hour time difference between us and the fact that you paint early in the day is that when I get up, your new painting is already waiting for me!
Once again, I love the bright upbeat nature of what you’ve painted. And once again I love the ‘volunteer’ composition that has come from your close-up detail photo.
I am interested to hear about the limitations, if that’s the right word, of your art journal. I wonder what alternatives you might find or create.
oops, just realized I need to run so I get to my exercise class on time. Remind me I have some questions about composition.