Friday, February 13, 2009

The excitement of colour

I love colour and constantly need to know more and more
about how it works. Trial and error seems to be vital.
Yesterday and today I've been working on a little cityscape
of my backyard at sunset. I took a photo a few weeks ago
of this scene just as the sun was sinking. And it's tricky to
paint. The sky is feverish, all yellows, reds and oranges,
fading up into an almost white creamy colour, then a
pale robin's egg blue. But the snow decorating the roofs
and yards is a magnificent colour of blue.



Starting the painting
Laying in a multi-coloured ground


So I'll work on it a bit more tomorrow -- Valentine's
Day. I took Steven out to see the movie Shopaholic tonight.
I loved the books, they're a light, satirical escape -- and
so British. The movie with a mostly American cast is not
exactly like the books, but still funny. I missed all the British
expressions. But we enjoyed it.


Drawing in the basic design with charcoal
over the initial ground

I remember when I went to see Sex and the City with a friend,
there was the same cheery vibe in the theater. I didn't
watch the TV show, but I did love the colour and costumes in
the movie. Shopaholic didn't have as many sumptuously
dressed characters, but it was fun, and even though it's been
panned, the audience loved it, including Steven. I'm
sure he was afraid he'd been hauled to the worst girl movie
ever. I know my friends in professional theater would
rail at my enjoyment, and probably hate every minute but
I deal in "deep" most of the time at work, I do get really
craving some shallow. This movie delivered.

Have an enjoying-being-deeply-romantic-day

4 comments:

Liza Hirst said...

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your beloved, Barbara! This painting looks exciting! You are so couragous with your colours - I love that!

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Liza,

Happy Valentine's Day to you. The painting is almost purely a colour discovery. I haven't got it yet, but I'll keep working on it. It's a "what colour should the shadow's be, and the trees that shine up into the sunset?"problem. Strange -- it's about emotion and science. I can do emotion, the science of colour is harder. I'm not good at looking at charts, so those colour wheels bother me. Call me weird. It's true.

xoxoxoxBarbara

Anonymous said...

Geez Louise! great start with this one. I'm looking forward to see it finished. Love that sky.
Eldon

Barbara Muir said...

Hi Eldon,

I'm glad you're liking it. It's kind of a baby steps painting. But a woman I met at a charity event a few weeks ago said the time for baby steps is over, we have to make giant leaps. I'll try tomorrow.

Take care,

Barbara

Portrait Artist

My photo
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I paint and draw on commission and for shows. To commission a portrait, or purchase one of my paintings please contact me at: barbara.muir@sympatico.ca
A major highlight in my career? Drawing Oprah Winfrey live via Skype for her show "Where in the Skype are you? Galleries: Studio Vogue Gallery, Toronto, Canada. The Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, New York City. Gallery at the Porch Door, Kingston, Canada. Your positive comments on this blog mean the world to me. I'd love to hear from you!