Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Color Yellow

A yellow iris -- one of my few attempts at using primarily the color yellow.  That made me think -- why do I avoid it?  I was told paintings with a lot of yellow in them rarely sell.  And yet I have sold my share of work with a strong yellow influence.

I looked up the color yellow in Wikepedia where they wrote "...yellow is the color people most often associate with amusement, gentleness, and spontaneity, but also with duplicity, envy, jealousy, avarice, and, in the U.S., with cowardice." I always thought it a happy color and rarely think of cowardice or avarice.  Apparently the Chinese like the sunny primary, because they believe it is the color of glory, wisdom, and happiness.


Vincent van Gogh adored his yellows. The world adores and admires his sunflowers.  His positioned his lovely purple irises against a warm sunny background. "The Bedroom" has a selection of yellow furnishings one can hope brightened his day.  Did Vincent sell his paintings with predominant uses of yellow?  I can't vouch.  But I believe lovers of his art appreciate the happiness he was able to bravely and boldly communicated with this color.
Vincent can Gogh on Google arts

Visit website and see if you spot shades and tones of yellow in any of my landscape paintings.
Krys Pettit Original Artwork

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Henry Flagler brings art to Florida




(Courtesy Google Arts & Culture)

Sounds like a headline and it might have been back in 1888 in St. Augustine, Florida.  Henry Flagler, millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder took a liking to the sleepy, historic town of St. Augustine and decided he would make it a destination for the rich and cultured of the Gilded Age. To attract this type of clientele he built the magnificent Ponce de Leon Hotel.  Outfitted with all the best and latest comforts (like electricity) it attracted wealthy Northerners during the season and gave them a glimpse of the beauty of Florida.  From there Flagler moved his hotel empire even further south and the lure of St. Augustine was replaced by the glitz of Palm Beach and eventually Miami and the Keys.

But Flagler started a trend of artists coming to Florida to rest, create and share their art with a discerning and wealthy clientele. He outfitted the Ponce de Leon Hotel with a number of studios for artists where they were able to create, exhibit, and sell their works.  Martin Johnson Heade, a renowned artist at the time, is just one of the many who had a successful studio at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.  Flagler was a smart developer with a knack for what the public wanted.  Creature comforts are paramount but feeding the soul with art was also important.  To this day, St. Augustine has the reputation for being one of the major art communities in Florida with a remarkable amount of galleries and a thriving art association.

If you love in Florida, or have the opportunity to visit Daytona Beach, take an afternoon and make a stop at the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach.  Among their remarkable collection you will find many paintings from the era of the Ponce de Leon Hotel and St. Augustine.  They depict a lush, rich Florida, a Florida difficult to find in these days of the new developers who forget that art, like creature comforts, are also important for an exceptional quality of life.

Learn more about the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach by visiting the link below --
Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art

For a sample of some of my work and impressions of Florida visit my website:
Krys Pettit Original Artwork

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Red, It’s Said…

Is the color of romance, danger, and power.  It catches your eye, whether it’s a beautiful woman’s favorite shade of lipstick, or the stop sign you almost missed.  It’s the color of apples, Valentine’s Day, blood, or a remarkable sunset. A red light can mean a sexy district in Amsterdam or a warning at a busy intersection.

Red is used as a focal point in art work.  Artists have been known to scatter points of red through their work to act as eye magnets, guiding your eye to take in the entire composition.  It is a highly visible color, second only to yellow.

I rarely use red in my work.  I favor the cool blue, purples and greens. But every once in a while I venture to the Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, and Vermillion part of my paint box and add a little punch there and there.  Here’s a few paintings I especially like using my bright, brash member of the color palette:


       

                               


Google Culture focuses on the color red with 7 interesting factoids:

Visit my website for an look of my red (and other colored) paintings.


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Redo It's What We Do

Painting for me can be hit or miss.  The best thought out piece can look exceptional in my head and turn out to be as blah as cold oatmeal on a grey day when done.  And those cold pieces get tossed in a portfolio to never see the light in my studio again.

Recently I purged a number of old watercolor paintings that just were not worth keeping.  I do this periodically but this was a deep dark disposal of some fairly weak items.  I kept a handful to reuse to paint on the backs (yes we artists reuse and repurpose -- have been for centuries).  I looked over this marsh scene and decided it needed a bit of a makeover.




It's a nice little piece, nothing too fancy.  Capably done but, as a friend would say, "Meh."

Redoing a painting in watercolor is more complex than in oil.  It is difficult if not impossible to lift color off the paper after it has dried.  So in this case lifting to add more highlights was tough.  I opted to just saturate with more color and contrast and shadows.


"Sunset - Florida Marsh" 
Krys Pettit
Watercolor on 140# Paper
11"H x 15" W

I worked on tweaking it a bit for an hour or so, adding darker values, playing around with complementary colors, adding texture and depth.  A pretty, restful piece that captures the glorious colors of a Florida sunset.  A little less "meh" and a little more "nice."

Visit my website for more samples of the pieces that didn't make it to the recycle pile :) 




Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Where's the Fun in That?

I study with a very proficient oil painter once a week.  For me this is weekly journey of challenges and anxiety, reversing my thinking process of creating a piece of art in another medium.  After 20-plus years as a watercolor artist I decided it was time to step up and learn a new medium.

So when an associate happily told me to "Have Fun!" as I set off to my lesson I had to wonder if this was really a way to have fun.  Art, as much as it is a joyous activity, also can be hellacious on the creator.  When you begin making art you are just gosh-darned thrilled to put lines, shapes, color on paper or canvas. And it may be all you ever wanted to do.  But if you are really committed, dedicated to making art, those blobs of color will never satisfy you enough.

You want more. You want to get better. You discipline yourself to work daily.  You take lessons and read and learn from the masters.  You want to explore and perfect your way of telling a story. You challenge yourself.  You throw out more than you keep.  You wonder what the heck possesses you to keep doing this, to add to the stacks of paper and canvases, to the pile of curiously squeezed tubes of paint, to the seductive smell of linseed oil in your studio.  And often you ask yourself why you continue to do this.

Maybe this is my idea of fun.  With just a little insanity thrown in.

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.” Michelangelo 


Discover more of my work at my website http://www.kryspettit.com/

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Endless Possibilities


Endless Possibilities

Colors in a tube.  Little morsels of visual joy.  Waiting to be opened, exposed, mixed, spread, splattered.  Creamy and watery, thick and gooey, dark and light.  Random ingredients in a planned recipe for art.  Choose one or all.  It's a visual feast.