July 2014 Newsletter

July Newsletter

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Here in Maine the weather has been gorgeous with lots of sunshine, warm days, comfortable nights and only a few days of steamy summer heat.  Great weather to work outside and we have been very busy here!  My art classes are on hold for the summer and I am using this extra time to paint and study.

I have been reading a fascinating book by James Gurney, “ Color and Light”.  A very in-depth study by a talented illustrator and teacher.  I am especially intrigued by his chapter on “Gamut Masking”.  This concept uses the color wheel to chart a selection of harmonious colors to create mood and drama.  The gamut mask shows what colors, and their chroma (intensity), are included.  All other colors are excluded. The gamut mask can be moved around the color wheel to choose different combinations to create various moods and effects.

This was a difficult concept to grasp at first but the more I read and thought about it, the more intrigued I became.  I searched out his blog for more information and found a treasure trove of information on more than just gamut masking and color.  Definitely worth reading.  Here is the link – www.GurneyJourney.blogspot.com.

Then yesterday I received a note from Leslie Saeta saying that she was organizing another 30/30 painting challenge for September.  Perfect timing!  I can experiment with Gamut Masking for the challenge.  I will have enough time to study a bit more and to purchase a color wheel that shows the full range of color chroma from pure color on the outer edge to neutral gray in the center.  I will purchase both the standard wheel and the Munsell wheel for comparison.  The more I read about the Munsell color wheel the more interesting it becomes.  It differs from the standard color wheel by shifting the colors a bit more to the blue side and is supposedly a more accurate color wheel.

I hope you will consider joining Leslie’s “30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge”.  There are no rules except to have fun.  You can paint as many as you like and she lets you post them on her website.  Any subject, any size.  I enjoyed the January 30/30 challenge and painted 24 – 5x7 paintings.  I noticed a definite increase in energy in my studio and it was fun to join over 400 artists from all over the world in this adventure.  I met many nice artists along the way.  Here is the link - http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/. Leslie also has a great blog about her free radio talk show called “Artists Helping Artists” that you can access through your computer at - http://artistshelpingartistsblog.blogspot.com/.

I will be talking more about these topics in my future blog posts. You can sign up to automatically receive my new posts in your email mailbox here or in the special box located in the right hand column. There are over 70 previous posts that I hope you will enjoy.

So enough for now.  Lots to think about.  Enjoy!

Celene