Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Clotheslines and Abstract with Grays

Often I feel my pieces lack color unity, and are garish. It might be because I have so little gray gluing everything together. I get carried away.

Here's a watercolor I think of as "Clotheslines." This began as an abstract and then the clotheslines and clothes emerged. Family, looking at this piece, don't get that, though - so it doesn't really work. And I'm not sure I like it, colors or composition. It has no focus - too much is going on.

I read about ways to mix grays using different pairs or trios of transparent colors. So I decided to experiment with an abstract. This is the result. While I like some of what's going on here, and I learned some things I will apply in other works, I'm not sure this works, either. It also lacks focus.

So I don't think of these as finished pieces, and I will probably paint over them in some way and push them further. That's how Cats and Koi emerged.

2 comments:

DebD said...

I love watercolor and look forward to seeing what emerges.

Steve Emery said...

Actually, the abstract with grays has already moved on. Tonight cows appeared, and trees above and behind them. Not sure where this stuff comes from. I'll post the photo sometimes soon, once it's done.