Category: Blitherings

Buh-sgetti

This just sums it up! Whoever took this picture must have had so much fun setting up and taking it!

Anyhow . . . this really expresses how I’m feeling. Everything is totally chaotic. Work wants me to have more students, but the law has changed so that’s not going to be possible next year. This means doing the impossible, unless we get the law changed. It’s all about money – short term vs. taking the time – allowing the time -for a long term return on the investment of time. But do bean counters understand that? Not likely.

And then there are projects. Knitting projects. PHP and MySQL project. Painting projects. Reading projects. Gardening projects.

Sheesh. Whadda mess.

A Bit of Color, i

The Book and the Paints

I’ve been doing sumi-e for awhile, and now with my return to my Chinese painting class, the urge to paint is getting stronger, and the need for color is making itself known.  However, it never hurts to refresh one’s skills; given this, I dug out a book I’ve had for some time:  Watercolour by Patricia Monahan.  This is a good book for standard watercolor techniques.  So, I’m going through it, front to back, in my spare time.  It’s a good refresher.  As well, these techniques are important to remember as I know many will be used in any subject done in the Chinese style.

In watercolor, I’ve encountered different approaches to how to work – light to dark (Monahan’s approach) and dark-to-light.  Personally, I find that I work more logically light-to-dark, but the truth is that working dark-to-light just confuses me.  Maybe it is something I should deliberately try.  For now, though, I will hold that thought and practice a few simple techniques.

Monahan’s book is broken down into sections.   Currently I am on Washes (having read the introduction and chapter on equipment), which include techniques and then subject matter, such as rain clouds and the beach.  I’ve done a solid wash, into which I’ve done

  • wet-into-wet
  • wet-onto-dry
  • dark to light stripes (not a wash) by adding water to a dark color to lighten it
  • gradated dark-to-light wash

I’m using pan paints, made by Pelikan, and I think they are technically opaque, but I find that they work fine and have a nice degree of transparency when diluted. They are convenient and easy to use on my crowded desk. For paper, I have a 7 x 10 inch block of hot press, 140 pound, Arches. I’m using both sides of the sheet for the exercises.

Washes:  Solid, Wet-into-Wet, Dry-onto-Wet

The very first exercises in the book are reviews, or introductions, of the wash.  The solid wash is explained, and demonstrated.  From there, the author moves into wet-into-wet.  Below, you will see it in the upper left corner of the picture.  Wet-onto-dry is also done, with a wash laid down, allowed to dry, and then another color applied over it.  This is illustrated by the weird circles in the lower left corner.  Finally, layering of color is done, which you will find on the right.  I kept the same strength of color for the layers, and applied about eight.  The results are quite nice.

Diluting a Dark Wash

This next exercise was actually one I’ve never encountered before.  This consisted of creating a fairly dark wash, and continuing to dilute the wash with the same amount of water.  Each stripe in the picture below shows what occurs as the intensity of pigment is weakened.  I was not scientific because I did not measure out specific amounts of water, but I did add two brushes full of water to the pan as I moved along.  It seems to have worked out well.

Gradated Wash Using Flat Brush and Round Brush

Next was the ever-popular gradated wash.  Onto dry paper, color is placed at the top and diluted as the color is worked down.  I did this twice, using a flat brush on the left, and a large round on the right.  Both have their merits.

Two Gradated Wash Methods

This next exercise consisted of placing a gradated wash onto dry paper and moving it into damp.  This is on the left side of the picture below.  I used a small sponge to dampen the lower half of the paper, and then at the top began my wash on dry paper.  As I moved down the dry section, I added a bit of water, and then continued on down into the damp section, moving left to right and back.  When I got to the damp section, I did not add any more water, nor pigment, but just let it become weaker.  This was a brand new technique for me.  On the right I did the dampened paper with a gradated wash.  The paper was dampened with a sponge, allowed to dry a bit, and then a standard gradated wash done.

First Exercise:  Monochrome Rain Clouds

Finally, the first exercise:  monochrome rain clouds.  Using black, I laid down a gradated wash onto dry paper.  Before I let it dry, I used the sponge to lift up some of the color.  I squeezed the sponge out into my waste water jar and continued.  After I let this area dry, I laid down some medium and darker washes, doing some wet-into-wet, some lifting, and so on.

I was pretty nervous doing this as I was sure it would all be a disaster, but decided to trudge on rather than freak out! I always over do my watercolors – or nearly. I get sooooo frustrated! However, I am rather pleased with the results, and will do a few more monochromes before moving onto the next exercise which is the same thing – rain clouds – but with a limited palette.

Retrospective Introspection

Admittedly I have been feeling rather sorry for myself.  I get like this when I have no time to sit down and think about life and what I want to do with it.  Thursday I walked into my office at work and was just unable to make choices as to what to pursue next.  Oh, there were a lot of things to be done, but it seemed just so overwhelming and the mere act of choosing what to do was impossible.   The best thing to do in these circumstances – for me, at least – is to sit down with paper and pen and begin to write.  Five pages later, the world was in order once more.

Writing is therapeutic.  It’s like the pensieve of the Harry Potter stories.  I pull out thoughts and ideas and frustrations, and when they are all placed onto paper, there is structure found amidst the chaos.

Painting is much the same process as writing; however, I often feel pulled into different directions.  I never focus on one style.  The consistent factor is my use of water-soluble media and paper, but other than that, I don’t have a particular style.  Consequently, I am not as accomplished as I would like to be in watercolor.  I like many of my ink paintings and the simpler watercolors that are based on sumi-e.  Traditional watercolors are often disastrous failures.  Acrylic paints are not my favorite medium, but there are times when I have used them to create more graphic pictures.

Today, I went through my hard drive to look at some of the paintings I have scanned or photographed over the past year or two, and pulled out some which appealed to me for whatever reason – sort of a retrospective of the work of the last few years.  Here they are, not in any particular order, but just for me and anyone who wants to look at them to see and consider.

Now

As we get older, time becomes less. We have less of it.

Having a conversation about the sense of time, and the differences in the perception of time we had as children – summer lasted forever – and now as adults – the children are grown! – whoever I was talking with said that our perspectives shift with age because of the contexts we have in our brain. Children are more immediate, and adults have touching points. These touching points are referential – we use them to frame our reality.  Children are developing memory, while we are full of them. Older people can remember their childhood often more vividly than they can recall the day before.

I know for me this is certainly true. And the result is that I forget about the immediacy of living – the moment of now. Instead, my head is filled with plans and structures because of all the things I need to do now.  If I don’t get certain things done now, I will miss out on windows, whether for opportunity or survival.

“Being here now” has so many different meanings – the nowness of chores and things that have to be done (which is where I am at today with bills and job applications) – and, of course, living and doing in the moment. I forget this so often that my sense of spontaneity is vanishing, and the horizon of my life is hurtling toward me at an increasingly rapid pace. I schedule the “thou shalts” and forget the “let’s”.  How sad to think that I may lose what time I have left because I forget the joy of the moment and structure my life with tasks and chores and must-do-its.

I fear I am becoming increasingly dreary.