Oil and Water Mixing in My Studio

"Red Gate St. Augustine" (oil)

"Red Gate St. Augustine (watercolor)

Oil and water -- well known not to mix in a recipes, on our precious open waterways, and yes, when working with a painting.  But I mix my mediums if only on completed pieces these days.
For 25 plus years I worked in watercolor.  I like the medium and as finicky as it can be I have grown accustomed to the quirks. I love the immediacy and freshness of a watercolor painting.  But, as with any relationship, things were getting a bit old, a little boring.  They (who are "they"?) say artists shouldn't switch mediums when they are successful.  I say bull pucky.  And I succumbed to the seduction of oil paints.
   I have a marvelous instructor who is guiding me through what seemed a trickier process than painting with watercolor.  I love oil paint for the texture, viscosity, and bright, vivid colors.  It has more body for me, enabling me to build, correct, and give my images a certain patina.  But in many ways I want to work it like a watercolor, not overworking and letting the light places "sparkle" rather than dulling a painting.
   I am reworking paintings I have done in watercolor with oil these days.  Attached you will find a current effort.   On the left is the recent oil of an entrance in St. Augustine, Florida.  On the right is a watercolor image done some years ago of the same scene.  I know which one I like better.  How about you?

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:

Red from Google Culture

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

Krys Pettit Artwork

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.

Krys Pettit Original Artwork