"THE BIG REVEAL" WCBTO

We have a secret weapon here in the SF Bay Area and his name is Mike Bailey. (to check out his blog, look to the right of my post and scroll down) Mike developed this fantastic 10 week class sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society (SCVWS) called Watercolor Beyond The Obvious. I have taken the class 3 times. This is hardly a record. Many have taken it time and time again. It is offered once a year and sometimes twice a year. My schedule has become too busy to have 10 weeks free, otherwise I would take it every time it is offered. The strategy is to take an image and create a series of 20 paintings (2 full sheets a week) changing it each time by manipulating the elements of design. You can view my series on my website www.myrnawacknov.com. The 10th week meeting is when everyone brings their 20 paintings to class and, one person at a time, spreads their paintings out in sequential order on tables that have been set up in a huge "U". Everyone walks around the tables and looks at the development of the series. Mike talks about the artist and the artist has an opportunity to talk about their perspective on the whole experience. This 10th class is what I fondly refer to as "THE BIG REVEAL". Guests are welcome and there is a wonderful pot luck luncheon for all. It is one of the most special days of the year.

This is Stephanie. You can see part of her series which was based on the marvelous shoes she is wearing. Stephanie is new to the group and she just did the most fantastic job. The reason I have this photo of Stephanie is because while everyone is busy walking around and taking photographs of the art work, I am busy looking at the art work and taking photos of everyone who is walking around. You can see why I fixated on Stephanie. The striped hose, boot like canvas shoes, model lythe body and she is a painting waiting to happen! Not only is everyone on to me, now, many are busy photographing the crowd, as well. Stephanie was definitely the star...look for lots of long striped legs in lace up canvas shoes appearing soon!

All the students did phenomenal work but there is one woman who has stayed with her same theme through 5 separate sessions of Watercolor Beyond The Obvious and completed her 100th painting of "Liberty". This is a series with serious content and Laurie Barna has put her heart and soul into it. Check out her website at watercolorsmyway.com and view this exciting and moving expression of love for America.

FINALLY!!

My first series that I did in Mike Bailey's fabulous course "Watercolor Beyond the Obvious" (see sidebar for a link to Mike's blog) was "Vern". These two images in the series were inspired by a landscape by Wolf Kahn. Kahn is a master of incredible color. I analyzed his painting, deciding which watercolor pigments would reproduce the colors I was seeing. Then I determined the value number for each color and lastly the percentage of the painting each value had. I loved the results...the painting "glows" and it was one of my favorites in the series. Unfortunately, I was never able to adjust the color in the photograph I took so it always looked dreadful on my website and anywhere it appeared. Until today!!! It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I took the painting outside and re-photographed it. I am thrilled with the results. Looks like I will have to do more serious photography of paintings outside. I do have a setup of special lights, etc. for indoors but it is a total pain in the ____ to do, so I usually just prop the painting up on the kitchen counter and take the photo. I re-photographed another painting so I could enter it into a national watercolor show.

The second Vern painting is a different value pattern using the same pigments as the first. I loved how these color came together. Now I have a "pair" that I like to hang together. I need more walls!

MIKE BAILEY'S OPEN STUDIO! WOW!

It seems my life is full of wonderful art related activities but I don't seem to be getting much painting done! Today was very inspiring, however, so tomorrow I am determined to get paint to canvas. I am doing my next Frenchman - shape painting on a canvas!

First I went at noon to deliver my painting for the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society annual show. They take the paintings directly into the Rose Shensen Gallery so it is impossible to get a look at anything. Very sneaky, these people. Friday I will get to see the show. Considering you don't have to be juried in, the quality of the show is always amazing. This group has a very talented membership.

Afterwards, my husband and I took off for Santa Cruz to attend Mike Bailey's Open Studio event. Today was the first day of a two weekend showing. Mike does such an amazing job of displaying his work plus his studio is to kill for so I thought I would take some photos and share with everyone. I start out with a photo of Mike and his adorable wife, Diana. Everyone should have such a supportive person in their life around their art. The back patio had 4 or 5 bins of matted paintings plus the fence that goes the length of the house and the tented part you can see. The dining room had screens set up with black draping and unframed small oils on the table with a few empty frames just the right size to "try out". He has built a temporary lighting frame for the ceiling. Access to the studio was from the back yard. Be sure and check out the sign above the brushes telling "the truth". I had a chance to sloooooowly browse through a new book by Nita Leland on color (Mike has 3 paintings in the book) that is so exciting, I can't wait to order it and use it in my own work and teaching.

TOMORROW I PAINT!

THE DEFINITIVE WORD ON COLOR VS. VALUE!

Mike Bailey (http://www.mebaileyart.com) has sent me his considered explanation of the difference between a "color painter" and a "value painter" It is beautifully explained by one of the best teachers around. I have his permission to share his thoughts with you. Mike has a current discussion on his blog regarding design which you should definitely check out as well!


"Topher brought this up under the following context: That the only way painters can delineate *volume* or *form* is by manipulating values. That is to use values as light and shadow would behave. Alex Powers is a Value painter. He establishes form using little color and a lot of value changes. He augments his work with some textural qualities, but the image is value based. Value painters (the most common among us) us extremes of value (dark vs light) to hold the eye in an interest center or focal point.

On the other hand, colorists, are not always interested in the idea of form or volume. Instead they are more interested in showing off color differences, (hue, temperature or intensity), WITHOUT showing value shifts . . . . .that is holding the values constant . . .no indication of light and shadow . . .just flat space with color, not value, shifts.

What Powers and Schink are saying is that in a "value painting" the value differences distract the eye from the more subtle color shifts, such as a slight temperature change in red, for example. If a significantly darker space was near that temperature shift, it would not appear as obvious because of the distraction of the value contrast.

This goes to the "order of seeing." Where we see value differences first, pattern or texture second and THEN color differences. Physiologically, our eyes are made that way. We don't have a choice in the matter.

So, color painters, or colorists, rely on subtle or no value changes in order to show of color variance in temperature or intensity or hue. Luminosity, where the appearance of light coming FROM an object or surface (versus illumination . . .where light is shining ON a surface) is painted by keeping values very close, no darks, no whites . . . .using pure color tints in the luminating area and surrounding that area with near neutrals. This is an intensity change, not a value change.

Skip Lawrence a few years back was on a chase to paint "color as value" where he would use the natural value of colors as they came from the tube to show value changes and ignored the actual hue. for example, in a light and shadow situation, he might use a peach tint for light and a deep purple in shadow. The value difference was the key in his paintings. Where there were subtle color shifts in his paintings such as a change from cool red to warm red, it could not hold the eye . . .and was often missed by the viewer because of the value difference between the peach and purple.

Can painters do what Myrna did in her portrait? Absolutely. She used color as value in her peice and shows off big differences in warm hue versus cool hue . . .but the value structure is still intact. So, Alex Powers would (probably) say that hers was a value painting with colored textural elements exciting the surface.

The key in what Topher was talking about was to decide between flat versus form."

Finally, a clear definition of "Value vs. Color" that finally gets it through my brain! Thank you, Mike. I have taken Mike's class "Watercolor Beyond the Obvious" 3 times (see "series" on my website) and I remember this discussion, but I don't think I truly understood it until now. I think color may be the most complex subject in art. So great to realize that learning never stops and there is so much more to explore! I guess I am a colorful value painter. Very few of my paintings are truly "flattened". I have posted one of my exceptions. At the time I thought I was doing "color as value" and working with pure hues but now I see that although the color has value, the value is not used to define the form in a 3 dimensional way so it is a color painting with pattern as texture. My previous post of Preston Metcalf was more of a true example of color as value.